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Natural trump trick IT seems curious, but players with a natural trump trick always seem reluctant to ruff (or overruff) with it. They tend to overlook the possibility of partner scoring a trump trick independently.
East dealt at love all and the bidding was simple. He opened One Club, South overcalled with One Heart and West passed. North might have tried INT but he passed, East re-opened with Two Clubs and South fought on with Two Hearts to end the auction. West led his singleton Club to the Ace and a Club was returned for a ruff. West tried a Diamond to the Ace but declarer ruffed the next Club lead with the eight and followed with Ace and another trump. That was the end of the defence who had only the Ace of Spades to come. East’s argument was that, with a natural trump trick in the shape of HKQ, he did not want to ruff. He can, however, score tricks with both of them. Although he is sure of giving his partner a Club ruff, suppose he returns a Spade at trick 2? West wins with the Ace, gives his
partner a Spade ruff, then regains the lead with a Club ruff for
another spade lead. Then the defenders score three trump tricks as
well as their three Aces. |
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For example, in an
extreme case, it may turn out that partner has the singleton King of
trumps and failure to trump with the singleton Ace means that the two
winners fall, in an undignified manner, on the same trick. The same
sort of thing happened on this week’s deal.