26  Dummy Tricks part 3

We come now to actually playing a contract which arrived via DT calculation. It’s all about drawing trumps. We all have the need to draw trumps in our DNA, but if we rush to do so as soon as we can, there may not be enough trumps left in dummy to fulfil the promise made by the ruffing table. Here’s an example: You open 1S on a minimum hand, partner goes 4S and when her hand goes down you see

S xxxx

H  None

D Axxx

C xxxxx

(Yes, that’s right, 4 points. It’s an extreme case but there are four DTs there.)

 It’s clear that unless you can ruff hearts three times into that void which expects three ruffs, you can only afford one round of trumps, then you must get on with dummy ruffs, involving getting back to your hand twice to do it.

If you or dummy has that wonderful 9th trump from the start, it may be possible to draw the remaining four enemy trumps immediately and still get your ruffs in later. In a nutshell, when dummy first goes down you need to decide a) “Do I need to draw trumps now, b) do all my ruffs first, or c) draw some trumps and then start ruffing, finishing trumps later?” Everything depends on the hand you are looking at. If your partner used DT to bid her hand, she will not thank you for going down if you didn’t use all the theoretical ruffs. If indeed you didn’t, your only excuse should be that you dumped your losers on her magnificent side suit.

Could all this additional theory be the reason the DT system got forgotten? Well, it shouldn’t be, because all the above advice is valid whatever system you use to raise partner.

Start using DT and send all your money to my bank account.