Declarer Play - 4 Hearts

The question from the last blog entry was  "Is there a better contract?"

Yes, there is.  Try playing in 4♥

So now the contract is 4♥ and the opening lead is the K♦.  Try dealing out the cards and playing along.

Dummy:
♠KT2
♥A932
♦A43
♣762

Declarer (me):
♠AQJ73
♥K852
♦8
♣AJ3

Since I am in a trump contract I will start with counting my losers. I will look at my hand (since I have more trump than dummy) to see where my losers are:
♠ 0 losers
♥ 1 or 2 losers depending on if the suit splits 3-2 or not
♦ 0 losers
♣ 2 losers

So far the losers look pretty much the same as they did in 4♠.  But watch what you can do with a 4-4 trump fit as opposed to a 5-3 trump fit.

To start with, win the  ♦A and take out 2 rounds of trump.  Both opponents follow suit each time so now there is only 1 trump out (the Q♥) and since that trump will beat your trump there is no point in taking out any more trump.  That opponent will win the Q♥ at some point but there is no point in you wasting 2 of your trump to take out theirs.  We need both our trump to do other things.  So here's what we come down to:

Dummy:
♠KT2
♥93
♦43
♣762

Declarer (me):
♠AQJ73
♥85
♦
♣AJ3

Now I want to play out my ♠ suit.  Since I have more ♠ in my hand I get to throw away 2 of my losers from Dummy.  What cards should I throw away?  I have a choice between ♦ and ♣.  Which ones should I throw away?  ♦?  ♣?  One of each?  Does it matter? 

It does matter.  If you think about it, the ♦ are not really losers because I can always trump them in my hand.  I can do something with them so I don't need to throw them away.  The ♣ are true losers since right now I can't do anything with them (except lose them.)

So I play out my ♠ (high card from the short side!) and throw away 2 losing ♣.  I end with with this:

Dummy:
♠
♥93
♦43
♣7

Declarer (me):
♠
♥85
♦
♣AJ3

 Now it's easy to see what you can do.  Play the ♣A and then trump a ♣, trump a ♦, trump a ♣, and finally trump a ♦.

Now eventually the opponent that has the good trump will trump in.  Does that matter?  No.  You were always prepared for that to happen and no matter what they return you can continue with your original plan of throwing away ♣ and cross-ruffing (trumping ♣ and trumping ♦) the hand.  You will make 12 tricks on this hand.

So in general if you have a 4-4 fit and also a 5-3 fit choose to be in your 4-4 fit.  You will take more tricks most of the time.  Not all of the time of course.  Sometimes the trump will split 5-0 and that won't be better.  Sometimes the trump will be 4-1 and that probably won't be better either.  But most of the time trump will split 3-2 and that's when it should be better to play in your 4-4 fit.