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Making tricks from a long suit 

In all the hands we are discussing on this page, it is immaterial which is declarer and which is dummy.

Consider the suit below.

The innocent '2' will be a trick if the six cards held by the defenders divide (break)  three in one hand and three in the other (3:3). Although this will happen only 36% of the time, it is still worth a go. Five issues are relevant here.

1. You must recognize the potential of the '2' as a trick.
2. In a trump contract, you must draw the opponents trumps first, otherwise, they will be ruffing in.
3. You must watch opponents discards very carefully. If one opponent shows out on the third round when you play this suit (implying a 4:2 break), it is crucial to know if one has already been discarded (making it 3:3).
4. If you can put opponents under pressure by running another suit so that they must discard, this is good play. It enhances the chance of the missing cards falling under the ace, king and queen. A defender with 6 5 4 3 in this suit may well feel they are not worth keeping, to his cost and your benefit.
5. This suit is best played late rather than early, partly for the reason (4) above, and partly because later on, you will have more information about the defender's hands and will be in a better position to judge how the suit is breaking.

Do the hands below offer the same possibilities ?

The five points above are still valid but this time, if the outstanding cards break 3:3, we will have two extra tricks. We will make a fourth trick in the suit even if they break 4:2, provided we have sufficient entries to left-hand.

What is the difference if we introduce another card ?

 Even if you find statistics a shade worse than lies and damn lies, you will all recognise instinctively here that our chances of making five tricks are much better than the previous hand. In fact, five outstanding cards will break 3:2,  68% of the time-a good bet ! Here again, a fourth trick is guaranteed even on a 4:1 break (28%).

Unfortunately, more often than not, the suits in the above situations are not so strong.

The same argument for making a trick with the '2' still applies, but here we must lose a trick first to create this long-suit trick. You could play ace, then king and then a third round of this suit, but if it is a bad break, the opponents will have two tricks and will be on lead to take them. It is better to play the ace first (to be sure that the break is not horrendous), then a small card from each hand. Then when you play the king on the third round to see if your luck is in, you will be on lead and so retain some measure of control if the break is bad.

In both cases, the bonus for playing it this way occurs  if your long suit is in dummy where entries are often precious. As you can see, we have contrived to use the  suit itself as the entry to the long suit and the hoped-for reward of 'a trick with the '2'.

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