Stacking the tricks.

I used to find it really frustrating as dummy. A bead of sweat breaks out on partner's brow as he tries, desperately, to find the ninth trick in 3NT, eventually going off in the attempt by taking a failing finesse. All the time, you knew he had it off the top. What you knew, but he didn't, was that he had stacked an earlier trick the wrong way round. The elusive extra trick wasn't his ninth, it was his tenth.

As from the 2007 laws, there is a remedy but you have to be quick off the mark.

Dummy, or either defender, may point it out if anyone has stacked a trick the wrong way but they must do so before anyone leads to the next trick. As for declarer, he can do it at any time and require any player to stack his tricks correctly.

Given that there is often very little time between a trick being stacked and the next being started, I recommend dummy should always watch declarer like a hawk and tell him as soon as he attempts to stack a trick the wrong way round. It's not as if dummy has anything else much to do so it should help to pass the time.


Back Copyright © Keith Sheppard, 2001