Issue 12 - Standard American

Editorial by Paul Bowyer

Welcome to the twelfth edition of V-Blue, the e-magazine for those learning the wonderful game of bridge.

We are now half way through our program of 24 editions – doesn't time fly? As always, in this issue there are three excellent series for you to get your teeth into.

Two series (of six hands each) are on how to play suit contracts, specifically the draw trumps or ruff in the dummy dilemma. When dummy goes down in a trump contract you have to make a decision – should I draw trumps or do I have more important things to do first? We try and show you how this dilemma should be resolved and – as so often in bridge – counting your tricks is at the heart of the matter.

When you have absorbed the oh-so-important lessons here you may care to try out our "General Series". In this set we have eight assorted hands for you to see what you have gained from previous editions of VuBridge. Some of these hands place you as declarer and some put you as a defender. Can you make your contracts and defeat the opponents' contracts? That’s not asking too much, is it?

The quiz this time has no theme - just ten random questions across all the topics covered so far. We expect you all to get 100% and graduate with honors...

There is plenty here for you to enjoy, plenty of instructive material. Good luck.

Series #2320 - Draw trumps or ruff in dummy? - Part I (SA)

This set of deals (and a follow-up set of six in this edition of V-Blue) is all about the draw-trumps-or-not dilemma.

When dummy goes down in a suit contract you have to decide whether to immediately extract the opponents' trumps or not. For some this is easy – they have been told, "Always draw trumps!"

Unfortunately, bridge is not played by hard and fast rules (or shouldn't be, at least). On some deals it is important to draw trumps and on others you have more important matters to attend to first.

So (and this is the key question): How can you tell?

The answer usually comes from counting your tricks. If you can see enough for your contract (and have a sound plan) then go ahead and draw trumps. If, on the other hand, you have insufficient tricks to fulfil your contract then you may well need to do something else and that "something else" may well be to ruff a loser in the dummy.

Note that ruffing losers should only be done in the short trump hand. It is a waste of time and effort to trump losers in the long trump hand – you are likely to make those tricks anyway.

Series #2320 - Draw trumps or ruff in dummy? - Part I (SA):

Miscellaneous Quiz

The quiz this time has no theme - just ten random questions across all the topics covered so far. We expect you all to get 100% and graduate with honors...

Click here to run the Quiz.

Series #2321 - Draw trumps or ruff in dummy? - Part II (SA version)

This set of deals follows on from its cousin, presented elsewhere in this edition, and continues the theme of draw trumps or ruff-in-the-dummy.

Remember, when dummy goes down in a suit contract you have to decide whether to immediately pull the opponents' trumps or not. For some this is easy – they have been told, "Always draw trumps!"

However, it is unwise to play this game just using hard and fast rules with little regard to their purpose. On some deals it is important to draw trumps and on others you have more important matters to attend to first.

How can you tell?

The answer usually comes from counting your tricks. If you can see enough for your contract (and have a sound plan) then go ahead and draw trumps. If, on the other hand, you have insufficient tricks to fulfil your contract then you may well need to do something else and that "something else" may well be to ruff a loser in the dummy.

Note that ruffing losers should only be done in the short trump hand. It is a waste of time and effort to trump losers in the long trump hand – you are likely to make those tricks anyway.

It is important to keep an eye on your losers. There are only two ways of disposing of excess losers – we can trump them or we can dump them. Trumping them means ruffing them in dummy, dumping them means throwing them away on side-suit winners.

Series #2321 - Draw trumps or ruff in dummy? - Part II (SA):

Series #2803 - General Hands (SA):