Simple Saturday

“Simple Saturday” columns are meant to help aspiring players improve technique and develop logical thinking.

My columns this week treated the simple process of counting winners by declarer, something best done before he plays a single card.

Say you land at 3NT after a prosaic auction. Your 1NT showed a minimum balanced hand; North had an easy raise to game. West leads the six of spades, and your ten wins.

CLUB TRICKS

If West has the queen of clubs, guarded no more than twice, you can win a finesse, get five club tricks and finish with overtricks. But if the finesse lost, you would have only four clubs, two spades and two diamonds, and if West led from a five-card spade suit, the defense might win a club, three spades and the ace of hearts.

Count winners. You have two diamonds and two clubs and will win a second spade. Three tricks are available in hearts, so to assure your contract, start the hearts at Trick Two. As the cards lie, you go down if you attack the clubs.

DAILY QUESTION

ANSWER: Pairs might handle the hand in various ways, perhaps involving “transfer” responses. A simple “Standard” method is to respond two clubs, Stayman. If partner bids two hearts or two spades, raise to game. If he bids two diamonds to deny a four-card major, bid two or three spades, inviting game or forcing to game as your judgment dictates. South dealer Both sides vulnerable