Suit combinations occur all the time

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE® GARFIELD® BIG NATE® ARLO & JANIS® ZITS®

Peter De Vries was a novelist and editor known for his satiric wit. For example: “The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.”

Bridge has lots of combinations -- suit combinations. If you would like to test yourself, buy “Playing Suit Combinations” by Fred Gitelman and Jeff Rubens.

The book begins with a tutorial comprising parts of another book: “Expert Bridge Simplified: Arithmetic Shortcuts for Declarer” by Jeff Rubens (both Bridge World Books). This includes lots of questions, the answers also explaining how to work them out at the table. Then there are 66 combinations on which to practice. Usually, you have sufficient entries and no extra knowledge about the deal from an opponent’s intervention that might influence your play.

In this deal, South is in six no-trump. He wins the first trick with dummy’s spade king and leads the club five: 10, ace, two. He returns the club four, and West covers with the three. Should declarer play low from the board, or put up the queen, or is it a 50-50 guess?

North’s raise to six no-trump was reasonable. It was unlikely that six clubs would have been preferable. However, if the North-south methods permitted, North should have shown his suit because if South had the club ace and king, there might have been 13 top tricks.

The wrong analysis is that doubleton king-10 and jack-10 are equally likely. That is true a priori; however, what would East play from king-10? Right, the 10. What from jack-10? Maybe the jack, maybe the 10. South should assume East’s play was forced and finesse dummy’s nine.