COUNTING THE SHAPE CAN BE TOUGH
Edward R. Murrow, who died in 1965, said, “The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”
What would he think about communications today?
At the bridge table, most nonexperts do not work out the distributions of the unseen hands; and, to be honest, often it does not matter. Checking winners, losers and high-card points is more fruitful. But occasionally a deal comes along in which hand distribution is important.
To test yourself, cover the South and West hands. South is in four hearts. West leads the club ace, under which East signals with the eight, starting a high-low (echo) with a doubleton. West cashes his club king and gives East a club ruff. What should East lead at trick four?
In the bidding, South rebid three hearts to show at least 5-5 in the majors. North understandably went with the 5-3 heart fit. (Three no-trump fails if the defenders attack diamonds early.)
West was tempted to lead a trump because he had such good spades, but that might not have worked well here. If South wins the trick, cashes the spade ace, ruffs a spade in the dummy, and draws trumps, West is squeezed in three suits. Now back to East’s problem. He has seen declarer produce three clubs. So South's initial hand distribution must have been 5-5-03. East must resist the temptation to try to cash the diamond ace, which is fatal. Instead, he must exit with a trump. Then the contract cannot be made.
Copyright United Feature Syndicate (Asia Features)