06-03-2016, 07:32 PM
What concern do you have about declarer's hand? Essentially just one: that he's sandbagging a secondary suit,
or slow-playing a strong, texture-rich hand like
In either case, you need to have enough in the trump suit to be an annoyance. You're anticipating a battle for control in the mid-game. When that's the case, you *definitely* want partner to cash his aces first. You hope to get a little lucky, and start the attack on declarer's weak suits; if you can't threaten his trump holding, then it's not going to matter.
I'd say you need at least ATKxxx of trump. If you have something like ATKxx...forget it. The trump suit's too likely to be splitting favorably. Oh, you might still duck, but this is likely to be "the operation was successful but the patient died." If you have Ax, you can't duck; you'll have to hope partner can be a thorn in declarer's foot, and work on finding declarer's weak points. With weaker length, I think you need an attack suit of your own...given either declarer hand, say
3rd heart ace would be nice if declarer has the 2nd hand. Basically, you *hope* that hearts will start the tap, and that the defense can tap declarer enough that he can't realize any extra tricks. OR...switch declarer's hearts and diamonds. This happens sometimes. You win your trump ace, you cash your heart aces, lead a 3rd heart...BOOM! Good chance *someone* is ruffing this round or the next.
or slow-playing a strong, texture-rich hand like
In either case, you need to have enough in the trump suit to be an annoyance. You're anticipating a battle for control in the mid-game. When that's the case, you *definitely* want partner to cash his aces first. You hope to get a little lucky, and start the attack on declarer's weak suits; if you can't threaten his trump holding, then it's not going to matter.
I'd say you need at least ATKxxx of trump. If you have something like ATKxx...forget it. The trump suit's too likely to be splitting favorably. Oh, you might still duck, but this is likely to be "the operation was successful but the patient died." If you have Ax, you can't duck; you'll have to hope partner can be a thorn in declarer's foot, and work on finding declarer's weak points. With weaker length, I think you need an attack suit of your own...given either declarer hand, say
3rd heart ace would be nice if declarer has the 2nd hand. Basically, you *hope* that hearts will start the tap, and that the defense can tap declarer enough that he can't realize any extra tricks. OR...switch declarer's hearts and diamonds. This happens sometimes. You win your trump ace, you cash your heart aces, lead a 3rd heart...BOOM! Good chance *someone* is ruffing this round or the next.