[Flame]

whereagles, on May 16 2004, 01:56 AM, said:

Hum.. ruffing a heart was the first thing that come to my mind.

Ruffing a 5-2 suit without taking trumps out first is not everyday play, you know you will be overruffed.
playing from the short side usually only happend after transfer.
ruffing at the long trumps side only, which is called reversing dummy isnt that common especially when your short side is so weak.
I guess those are among the ressons why there is no pattern for this hand in my mind.

[Fluffy]

The key for this play to become familiar to you you need to think this way:

The only losers you are gonna get on tis deal are 2 trumps! even if they are 2-2 or 3-1, that means after you have cashed ♣A you have ALREADY DRAW THE REMAINING TRUMPS, I mean, after that you just trty to develop dummy´s long suit and/or ruff your losers in dummy, if you get overruffed at anypoint it is a trick you would be gonna lose anyway, do you ever draw the trump A when they ducked it twice?: no, (ok, there are rare cases in wich you want to do) jsut wait them to get it when they wish ruffing or overruffing whatever. This is just the same.

The only hazard involved here is that you may lose your ♦ control before enjoing your last ♥, in that case defence can cash a ♦, that is why like bridgeboy said not cashing ♣A gives some advantage, but that is just an small improvement (and actually will lose to some few cases where cashing wins) derivated from the former line of play.