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Rule of 1 - When opponents have only 1 remaining high trump, it's often best to ignore it and take tricks in other suits -- assuming there isn't a transportation problem accessing a long suit.

   7 6 5 4
4
K 8 7 6
K 5 4 3
 



 
Contract: 5 Diamonds

 Declarer: South
 




  2
A K Q 3 2
A 5 4 3 2
A 2
 

Ending up in a 5 Diamond contract, your losers could be one Spade, two Hearts, and perhaps one Diamond when opponents are 3-1 in the suit.  West leads the Club Queen to your winning honor – now what?  Clearly, you want to ruff two rounds of Hearts.  On this holding, you can afford to play two rounds of trump; when one opponent shows out after the second trump, you acknowledge they will win their Diamond Queen.  Using the Rule of 1, you do not play a third Club this time.  Instead cash your Heart Ace, ruff a Heart, come back to your hand and ruff a second Heart.  Hopefully you prepared for this strategy before you played on trick one and won with the dummy’s Club King rather than your Club Ace! Otherwise, how will you get back to declarer’s hand?  No, playing a Spade won’t help; seeing your ruffing strategy, the opponents win the trick and cash their Club Queen to knock out your last trump in dummy.  Oops.  That would be the same problem as if we were to play 3 rounds of trump.  So the Rule of 1 has its place but we still need to plan ahead, this time keeping an entry to declarer hand. Let’s try another one.

   K 8 7 6
4 3
5
K Q J 5 4 3
 



 
Contract: 6 Spades

 Declarer: South
 




  A 5 4 3 2
A 2
A 4 3 2
A 2
 

Our contract is a small slam, 6 Spades. West leads the Heart King which we win and put on our thinking cap.  Our losers could be three Diamonds, one Heart, and maybe a Spade.  Of course, we envision pitching a Heart loser and several Diamonds on the lovely dummy Clubs.  Declarer should probe with two rounds of trump Spades – this time beginning with the dummy’s Spade King so we will be in declarer’s hand on the second play of the Spade Ace, ensuring transportation for future ruffing.  Again, one opponent shows out on the second Spade so they have a winning Spade Queen.  The Rule of 1 warns us to consider alternatives before blindly playing a third losing trump. Here’s our cards at this point:

   - 8 7 -
4 -
5
K Q J 5 4 3
 
Q?


 
Contract: 6 Spades

 Declarer: South
 

Q?


  -  5 4 3 -
- 2
A 4 3 2
A 2
 

If we play a third Spade, the opponents win the trick and cash their Heart Queen to set the contract.  Then how about winning the Diamond Ace, ruffing a Diamond, returning to our hand with the Club Ace, and ruffing a second Diamond?  We would have one remaining Diamond and one Club.  If we tried pitching them on the dummy Clubs, down we go! We have eight Clubs, the opponents five, so with a 3-2 split, they will ruff a Diamond and cash their remaining Heart winner.  How about the brute force approach, attacking the Clubs straight away?

Yes, this is the winning line: we begin playing the Club Ace and play a low Club to dummy’s King; so far, so good.  Then we begin running our Clubs – if an opponent ruffs, we pitch our Heart on the loser, a neat sluffing tactic, playing a loser on loser. Now we can win our Diamond Ace, ruff a Diamond in dummy, and pitch like crazy on the dummy’s freshly promoted three baby Clubs.  Here were the hands after winning two rounds of Clubs, proceeding with the Club Queen and pitching declarer’s Heart 2 (notice the dummy’s only loser is the Spade Queen):

   - 8 7 -
4 -

- Q J 5 4 -
 
Q?


 
Contract: 6 Spades

 Declarer: South
 

Q?


  - 5 4 3 -
- 2
A 4 3 2
- -
 

So, is it always right not to pull the last trump? No, not when the opponents’ could disrupt entries to a long running suit without entries. This hand is similar to the last, but notice how the dummy lacks outside entries:

   3 2
3 2
5 4 3
K Q J 5 4 3
 



 
Contract: 6 Spades

 Declarer: South
 




  A K 7 6 5 4
A K 4
A 2
A 2
 

Again, we are in our favorite contract, 6 Spades.  Fortunately, West leads the Heart Queen to our Ace.  We play Heart Ace, all follow.  On the Heart King, we again find the opponents’ are 3-1 and will eventually win the Spade Queen.  But this time we cannot use our friend, the Rule of 1.  If we cash the Club Ace and begin playing dummy Clubs, when the opponents’ ruff with the outstanding Spade Queen, it is all over. No more entries, no more pitches, no more promotion – how sad.

Instead, if we draw the last trump, the opponents’ can do no harm.  We have controls in all the suits and can now run the dummy’s beautiful Clubs!  Thank goodness West didn’t make an opening lead of a Diamond or our Rule of 1 story would fizzle!  The point is, when the promotion race is on, it helps to be one step ahead – often the name of the game is control of the outside suits.

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