Playing with 6 or less trumps

[smerriman]

On rare occasions, maybe due to a bidding misunderstanding, or an auction like the following, I find myself playing with a minority of trumps.

 

[hv=http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?sn=smerriman&s=S942HAKQ8DKJCAQ64&wn=Robot&w=SKQHJ742DA864C932&nn=Robot&n=SAT75H9653D732CJ7&en=Robot&e=SJ863HTDQT95CKT85&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1C(Minor%20suit%20opening%20--%203+%20%21C%3B%2011-21%20HCP%3B%2012-22%20total%20points)PPP&p=SK]400|300[/hv]

If you had to play such a hand, what would your general strategy be? (Lead K♠ in this case).

 

(I say if you had to, because I'm sure some would open 2nt, or others would respond 1♠ to specifically avoid this situation, and so on, and the simplest answer is probably that it happens so rarely, so ignore it and move on).

 

In a sense, it's almost like defending but being able to see your partners hand - I usually try to get a ruff of two, cash as many winners as I can, and see what happens. On the other hand, invariably I end up with less tricks than are achievable double-dummy - and from the opps perspective, it's not like declaring as they can't see each other's hands.

 

Can't quite get my head around the best approach (not specifically for this hand, but in similar situations).

 

Answers may of course depend on scoring, where you expect other tables to be, etc.