BRIDGE

Keep counting his suit lengths

Joseph Addison, an English writer who died in 1719, said, “The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.” A bridge partnership’s lifespan is lengthened when both players have good ideas at the table. In yesterday’s deal, East needed to work out declarer’s distribution to find the killing defence. Here is another example. What happens in four hearts after West leads the spade queen? The auction followed a straightforward path, with North making a game-invitational limit raise. South plays low from the board at trick one, and East encourages with the eight. West continues with the spade jack and a third spade, declarer ruffing in his hand. South draws two rounds of trumps, West discarding the club eight. Declarer continues with the club ace and club king. Then he gets off play with a trump. What should East lead to trick nine? Since dummy has only red-coloured cards left, there will be a natural reaction for East to shift to a diamond. But a wise player will analyse the whole deal first. Could South have begun with three clubs? Most unlikely, because he would have ruffed his loser on the board. If that is true, South must have started with 2=5=4=2 shape. This means that the correct defence is to exit with either a club or a spade. This cannot give away the contract, and will be the winner here. The defenders get two spades, one heart and one diamond. If instead East leads a diamond, declarer gets home by following the odds.