IT IS THE BIGGEST EXPERT ADVANTAGE

Many times in this column, I have emphasized the importance of counting. When does counting start?

Right — you should always check that you have exactly 13 cards. (Also say your hand distribution to yourself.) Next, count your high-card points. When the play begins, tally the trumps. And if you can, keep track of the opponents’ points. Perhaps practice by watching a table playing deals. (Sometimes working out an opponent’s hand distribution will be important, but that is rare.)

In today’s deal, North’s threespade response showed a maximum pass with support. (Yes, it is much better to use Reverse Drury by a passed hand.) South made a borderline raise to game.

West led the club ace, East playing the queen to show the queen and the jack (or an unlikely singleton queen). West continued with the club four, East winning with the jack and returning a third round.

Declarer ruffed, played a heart to the queen and ran the spade seven. West won with the king, then returned a heart. Declarer drew trumps and cashed his heart ace, dropping West’s jack. Declarer had lost three tricks, so he couldn’t afford to surrender a diamond trick.

The normal play would have been to cash the king, then to finesse dummy’s jack. But here that couldn’t be right — why?

West had already shown up with 11 points: the spade king, the heart jack and the club ace-king. If he had the diamond queen as well, he would have opened the bidding as dealer. The only chance was to find East with a singleton or doubleton queen.