The Bridge Column

EASY WHEN YOU COUNT

Neither vulnerable, North deals Opening lead: Two of ♥ Keycard Blackwood would have been a nice tool for North-South, as South could have found out about the king and queen of spades. Lacking that agreement, South just bid what he hoped he could make.

Declarer won the opening heart lead in hand, perforce, and drew four rounds of trumps, discarding a heart from dummy as East shed three hearts. The king and queen of clubs were followed by a low club to dummy’s ace. West had to discard a heart on this trick to prevent South from ducking a diamond and setting up a long diamond trick. The opening lead, and East’s bid, marked West with an original holding of three hearts. He had shown up with four spades and two clubs in the play, so he had to have started with four diamonds.

South ruffed dummy’s last heart, which removed West’s last heart at the same time. South then led a low diamond to the king and then a low diamond from dummy, intending to just cover whatever card was played by East. When East played the nine, South simply covered it with the jack. West won this with his queen, but was forced to lead a diamond from his 10 into declarer’s ace-eight. It’s easy when you count!

Had West followed to the third club, the contract would still have been cold. A 3-3 club split would have made it easy, but no problem if West had four clubs. That would mean that East had four diamonds, so the ace, king, and another diamond would guarantee a third diamond trick.