BRIDGE

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.”

I always thought that the key stat about Zanzibar is that the whole population of the world could stand on it. However, for a bridge player, this should become: It is worth the while to count the tricks in every deal. How should South do that in this example? He is in four spades. West cashes his two top hearts, then shifts to the club king.

North’s redouble promised at least 10 high-card points. Then, when he bid spades on the next round, he showed exactly threecard support with gameinvitational values. If worth a game-force, North would have rebid four spades. South’s game-bid was ambitious. Also, note that East was right to bid two hearts. Since one player had opened, another doubled, and the third redoubled, East

was marked with a nearYarborough. His bid only expressed a definite preference among the three unbid suits.

After winning trick three with the club ace, the original declarer drew trumps ending in hand and took a diamond finesse. It worked all right, but South was stranded in the dummy. He had to concede two club tricks: down one.

Declarer needed five spades, four diamonds and one club. Here, that required taking three diamond finesses, and speed was of the essence. At trick four, declarer should have played a diamond to dummy’s 10. He would have continued with the spade queen, a spade to his king, a second diamond finesse, a trump to the ace, a third diamond finesse and claim.