Contract Bridge

Point count is usually thought of as an aid to bidding, but there are many occasions when it also can be utilized during the play.

For example, consider this deal where West starts by cashing the K-Q of clubs and has to decide what to do next. He knows that the ace of hearts will provide him with a third defensive trick, but the question is how to get a fourth one.

He could hope to find his partner with either the king of diamonds or ace of spades, but that is a very far-fetched possibility. Since West can see 14 points in his own hand and 13 in dummy, declarer must have both of those cards to account for his opening bid.

The only realistic chance

of defeating the contract therefore lies in finding East with either the ten or jack of trumps, in which case a second trump trick can be manufactured for the defense. So West leads a low club at trick three, cooperatively ruffed by East with the ten, and as a result four hearts goes down one. There is no way declarer can recover from this sequence of plays.

The purpose of the low

club lead (rather than the ace) is to make sure that East, who knows West still has the ace, understands what is expected of him. If West were to impulsively play the ace of clubs at trick three, East might not ruff at all, much less ruff with the ten. He would have no way of knowing that declarer had no more clubs, and he might mechanically discard rather than trump his partner’s ace.

Once West returns the low club, East has no choice but to ruff with the ten, and declarer is a goner.

Tomorrow: Impulsive plays may be costly.