In hindsight, the name "Transformer" should have been a hint that my toy truck wasn't just a toy truck. I didn't figure it out until a friend showed me how to use it properly many months after I got it. It was a much better toy when used correctly.

Figuring out how to properly utilize the dummy is the biggest component to being a good bridge player. Both as declarer or a defender, the question is "What is that dummy good for?"

As a declarer, seeing all of your side's cards is a big advantage. You should have an idea of exactly how you might make use of the dummy's holdings. Defenders have to guess what declarer will try to do. That said, too often declarers look at dummy and think "partner bid with this piece of garbage?" instead of considering how the dummy might be helpful.

We are South with:

AJ
AK10982
A2
AQ6

West	North	East	South
			2
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	4	All Pass

The auction

This is the type of hand you hope to pick up with money on the line. We open 2 and rebid 2 after partner's 2 response. Partner jumps to 4. This is actually the weakest raise in the context of a 2 auction. 3 would have shown some slam interest. As a result, we'll pass.

Dummy comes down:

Vul: None Dlr: S	98 QJ7 J6543 543
Lead: 4	AJ AK10982 A2 AQ6

The Play

The play at most tables would be quick. West leads a spade and East inserts the K.

Most declarers would win, draw some trumps ending in dummy and take a finesse in clubs. Not us.

The Plan

We count losers in suit contracts and have one spade loser, no heart losers, one diamond loser, and two potential club losers.

Let's stop and think about what dummy can be used for. The main uses for dummy in a suit contract: ruffing our losers, taking finesses into our hand, and discarding our losers on extra length.

This dummy doesn't provide any ruffing opportunities. If dummy had only two clubs, we would be able to ruff a club in dummy. No such luck as dummy's shortness is in spades. Our spade position is "mirrored" though, with two in each hand.

We see the opportunity to take a finesse in clubs, but finesses should be our last resort as they only work half the time.

Lastly, extra winners. A quick glance doesn't show any extra winners. Dummy could have had KQ32 which would have given us two extra tricks to throw away club and diamond losers. This dummy looks a bit useless, but you should never underestimate the value of a long suit. Marty Bergen likes to say, "I never met a five-card suit I didn't like."

When you have a five-card suit in either hand, it never hurts to think about how you might set it up. Here, we have 7 diamonds total. If the opponents' diamonds split 3-3, we can create two extra winners. If the diamonds split 4-2, that is still one extra trick. We'll need to get to dummy a few times for this to work. We can play diamonds twice from our hand. Then we need one entry to play the third round from dummy to ruff in our hand. A second entry will allow us to ruff the fourth round (potentially). Lastly, we use a third entry to take the good diamond. How many entries do we have?

It looks like we can get to dummy three times, using each trump. That makes it important that we are careful in how we draw trump (or don't, in this case). The play should go: win trick one and immediately play the ace and another diamond. Let's say our opponents take one spade trick and then exit a trump.

We win IN DUMMY (both opponents follow to the trump). Then, we ruff a diamond with a high trump. If diamonds are 3-3, we can draw the remaining trumps, ending in dummy, to play the diamonds and discard two clubs. If diamonds are 4-2, then we return to dummy with a trump (we don't need to pay too much attention to how they split after the first round since they are no worse than 3-1). Next, ruff another diamond high. Another trump to dummy draws the last trump and the remaining diamond is the only diamond left.

Play the diamond to discard a club and then take a club finesse for a potential overtrick. We improved our chances dramatically by playing on the diamond suit. Thinking "how do we use dummy?" is the key to good declarer play.

The full deal:

Vul:None Dlr: S	98 QJ7 J6543 543
Q7632 6 Q1087 K82		K1054 543 K9 J1097
	AJ AK10982 A2 AQ6