Hi all
I was playing a Piedmont pairs night with Elenalani about a week ago. This deal has been bugging me, like a fat fly on a very hot summer day.
I’m surprised by the jump to game by my LHO, and so is RHO I see from the corner of my eye. I figure there’s a lot of distribution involved, but that’s as far as I can get when assembling information. So I lead a top trump to prevent a complete crossruff. I certainly want to defend as passively as possible, right?
Wrong!
This was the complete deal.
Declarer had no problems establishing dummy’s 
suit to dispose of his 
. In the end East had only lost one trump and two 
. I can tell you +420 was a very, very lonely score on the score sheet.
The only effective defence is taking two top and then switch to a . Declarer can still develop the suit, but he lacks important tempo.
East can pitch only one loser on dummy’s winning , I get to ruff with my King and take the setting trick with my pointy Queen.
Could I foresee that West jumped to game on such a flat hand? Or should I just take take a deep breath, congratulate West with his insane bid and take my loss? I don’t know.
Hi Jannes,
I think you should congratulate West with his insane bid, but I also think a top
is a better start. It’s only worse than a trump lead if you can’t draw two round of trumps anymore (if you have to) or if you set up a side clubsuit for the declarer. But it’s better if you can give your partner a ruff or if you have to collect or establish your tricks fast.