Should I or Shouldn't I? Drawing Trumps at Bridge

To draw or not to draw... (trumps, that is)?

You might be forgiven for thinking this is an easy question to answer, and on many deals it is. But there are also a large number of situations where it's all too easy to make the wrong decision. As declarer, you (usually) have the majority of cards in the trump suit, but managing them to best effect isn't always quite so simple.

In this book, Marc Smith (a regular columnist for BRIDGE Magazine) looks at those less straightforward deals where you can't just 'draw trumps and claim'. Perhaps you need ruffs in the short hand, perhaps a crossruff is the way home, perhaps you have entry problems, or (shudder) a less than robust trump suit. Maybe you need to guard against a bad break, either in trumps or in a side suit. Or perhaps you need to play the early part of the hand with an eye to the endgame, planning a throw-in or squeeze.

All these eventualities and more are discussed, as the reader is shown step by step not only how to handle these issues in the play, but how to recognize them at the table and become a significantly better declarer as a result.

MARC SMITH is a bridge writer and expert player who has lived in Europe, North America and Asia. The author of more than 20 books, he co-wrote the bestselling 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know with Barbara Seagram. He is a two-time winner of the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year award.