Contract Bridge

No one can be a really good card player unless he has mastered the art of counting out a hand. By this is meant the ability to deduce the exact distribution of the unseen hands from either the bidding or what transpires during the play.

This skill is not nearly as difficult to attain as might be thought. The secret lies mostly in reconstructing the opponents’ hands as the play proceeds, paying particular attention to any trick where a defender fails to follow suit.

Today’s hand provides an illustration of how easy counting out a hand can be. South reaches five clubs on the bidding shown, and East collects two diamond tricks before shifting to a trump.

Declarer’s only problem is to avoid losing a heart trick. All his efforts should therefore be focused on trying to determine which opponent is more likely to hold the queen.

Accordingly, after winning East’s trump return, South cashes a second trump, noting that each opponent started with two clubs. He then plays the K-A of spades and ruffs a spade, both defenders again following suit.

A diamond is now ruffed, West discarding a heart. Declarer makes a mental note that East began with six diamonds and then ruffs dummy’s last spade. When East follows to this trick as West discards another heart, the picture becomes complete: East started with precisely six diamonds, four spades and two clubs, so he was dealt only one heart.

The rest is merely a mop-up operation. After ruffing the last spade, declarer cashes the ace of hearts to guard against the possibility that East might have started with the singleton queen.

When the queen does not appear, a heart is led to the jack. South doesn’t even have to bother to check whether the finesse succeeds — the only way it could fail would be if East was originally dealt 14 cards.