Last week was STAC (Sectional Tournament at Clubs) week – not something I usually cover in the column, but the excellent performance of Richard and Wendy Gray (again!) needs to be highlighted.

The events over the week are scored right across District 2 of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), which includes all the clubs in Ontario, Bermuda and parts of Manitoba and Michigan.

As I noted in my “stop press” last week, Richard and Wendy won the Monday game district-wide and the Wednesday game locally. That was a great achievement in itself, but it now turns out that they were also the leading masterpoint winners in the district over the whole week!

The Monday game gave them a whopping 17.68 masterpoints and they finished the week with 22.18 which was four points ahead of second – all the other 29 players in the top 30 were from the US or Canada.

Many congratulations! The Grays are on a roll, and whether it is something technical they’ve changed in their game, or their approach, they need to keep it going!

One of the greatest weaknesses in declarer play is the rush to draw trump – players are so frightened of an opposing ruff, even on hands that have no distribution, that they don’t even start planning the play of the hand until trumps are drawn – and often that is too late. Then there is always the hope that all the suits break well, and as a result declarer does not look for plays that can succeed, even when they don’t.

With all of that as clues, take a look at today’s hand and the bidding in Figure 1.

Two clubs was a strong opener, two diamonds was a negative. Opener’s two-spade bid was 100 per cent forcing and this pair played three clubs as a “second negative”. That gave opener the chance to show her second suit and the jump to four spades (fast arrival, bad hand) pretty much said: “I want no more to do with this hand!”

The defence started by cashing three club tricks, and East then switched to the diamond King – some helpful Wests played the Jack of diamonds under the Ace suggesting they held the ten.

Most declarers now put all their eggs in the basket of a 3-3 heart break (about a 33 per cent chance) or a defensive error with someone discarding a heart, but that was unlikely after the bidding as it was clear declarer was 5-4-1-3 in shape. They won the diamond, played five rounds of trumps and usually went down when East defended properly and the hearts broke badly.

The correct play, which I’m about to explain, comes up time and time again in this situation, but that does not make it any easier to execute!

Declarer must draw only two rounds of trumps and then play on hearts! If after three rounds both opponents have followed, draw the last trump and claim. The extra chance with this play is shown in the hand above – even though hearts are not 3-3, the fact that West had only two trumps allows declarer to ruff the fourth heart in dummy and claim.

And what if West did have the remaining trump? Well, you were going to go one down anyway if you had drawn trumps, so giving yourself the extra chance does not cost you.

But will you make this play at the table? I hope so after reading this!

• David Ezekiel can be reached on davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Thursday, July 10

1 Stephanie Kyme/Judith Bussell

2 John F W Glynn/Rachael Gosling

3 Peter Adhemar/Susan Adhemar

Friday, July 11

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Jane Smith/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Martha Ferguson/Judy King

2 Judith Bussell/Peter Donnellan

Monday, July 14

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

3= William Pollett/Linda Pollett

3= Rachael Gosling/Margaret Way

Tuesday, July 15

North/South

1 Heidi Dyson/John Thorne

2 Julia Tadman/Joshimar Hussey

3 Ross Cooper/Scott Gilbertson

East/West

1= Charlotte Emery-King/Kristy Pollett

1= Gareth Cooper/Maximillian Santiago

3 Kim Simmons/Desiree Woods

Wednesday, July 16

1 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

3 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Thursday, July 17

1 Ross Cooper/Scott Gilbertson

2 Erika Jones/Margaret Way

3 Martha Ferguson/Judy King