Reversing the dummy.
Bridge Column for May 28, 2004, Harvey Bernstein
Special To The Plain Dealer
East-West vulnerable.  South deals.
                              North
                              S: Q J 10           
                              H: K 8 6       
                              D: 8 5 4       
                              C: A 8 7 3 
            West                             East
            S: 5 3 2                         S: 7 4          
            H: J 9 4 3                       H: 8 5 2      
            D: K J 10 2                      D: A Q               
            C: Q J                           C: K 10 9 6 5 4
                              South                         
                              S: A K 9 8 6
                              H: A Q 10     
                              D: 9 7 6 3   
                              C: 2        
          The Bidding:  
                  South    West    North    East                  
                   1S      Pass     3S      Pass
                   4S      Pass     Pass    Pass
     After a normal auction, West leads the nine of hearts.  It
is not uncommon to agree to lead the second best card from a suit
that is not headed by one of the top three honors.  Declarer wins
this trick in hand with the ten and pauses to take stock of his
assets.
     There are nine top tricks.  Five spades, three hearts, and
the ace of clubs.  One possibility for a tenth trick is the
fourth diamond in the South hand, but this will require that
diamonds divide evenly.  Another way to gain a trick is to trump
a losing card in the hand with the shorter trump suit.  In this
hand, the dummy doesn't have a short suit to work with.  When
that situation exists, you may be able to arrange a "dummy
reversal".  Follow the play to see how this works.     
     At trick two, declarer leads the two of clubs to the ace and
trumps a club with the eight of spades.  The queen of hearts is
led to the king in dummy.  Another club is trumped with the king
of spades.  
     The six of spades is taken by the ten in dummy.  The last
club is trumped with the ace of spades.  Declarer has used three
of his spades to trump losing clubs.  Here is the position with
six tricks to go:
                              North
                              S: Q J           
                              H: 8        
                              D: 8 5 4       
                              C: Void 
            West                             East
            S: 5 3                           S: 7            
            H: 9                             H: 8       
            D: K J 10                        D: A Q               
            C: Void                          C: K 10 
                              South                         
                              S: 9 
                              H: A     
                              D: 9 7 6 3   
                              C: Void        

     The nine of spades provides an entry to the dummy.  The last
high spade in dummy pulls the last outstanding trump from the
defense and a heart to the ace becomes the tenth trick.  The last
three tricks are conceded to the defense.
     You can recognize these situations by looking for hands
where the dummy has trumps that are just as high as the trumps in
hand.   Keep in mind that there must be a short suit in the
closed hand plus sufficient entries to the dummy.  When those
conditions exist, you can usually gain an extra trick by
"reversing the dummy". 

     Congratulations to the following local players who have
achieved new levels of success in the quest for master points.
     Barbara Bacon of Rocky River and Mark Rishavy of Westlake
have passed the 1,000 master point level and are silver life
masters.
     Helen Brock of Cuyahoga Falls, Sheila Fox of Cleveland, and
Mary Jane Pickett of Stow have passed the 500 master point level
and are bronze life masters.
     Betty and Richard Haas of Stow, and Joshua Bailey of Burton 
have satisfied all of the requirements and are now life masters.
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.