HOW MANY TRICKS FROM THAT SUIT?

A.N. Onymous said, "It was mentioned on CNN that the new prime number discovered recently is four times bigger than the previous record."

It couldn't have been exactly four times larger, because then the number would have been divisible by four and not a prime number.

Today's prime question is: How many club tricks did declarer take in three no-trump?

After a simple quantitative auction, West led his fourth-highest spade: five, jack, king. How did declarer continue?

Note that declarer took the first trick with the king, not the queen, to leave West uncertain about who held the queen.

South had eight tricks: one spade, top one heart, four diamonds and two clubs. He hoped to gain a third club winner, but he required both a 3-3 split and to keep East off the lead. Otherwise, East would have pushed a spade through declarer's queen.

South cashed the diamond ace and overtook the diamond eight with dummy's nine. Then he called for the club nine. He was hoping East would play low, when declarer would have done likewise to lose a trick to West, the safe opponent.

However, East covered with the 10, and West unblocked his seven under South's ace. Back to dummy with a diamond, declarer led the club eight. Again, East defended well, covering with his jack. South was forced to win with his king, and in desperation, West threw his queen onto the table. He hoped his partner had the club six. But it was not to be. Declarer cashed that card, returned to dummy with a diamond and cashed the club four for his fourth trick in the suit!