TRY TO VISUALIZE THE DISTRIBUTION

Miguel de Cervantes, in “Don Quixote,” wrote: “Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never led to good intention’s goal.” That certainly applies at the bridge table. If you do a lot of counting, you will usually find the perfect plays; whereas if you just pull cards, you will make many mistakes.

Today’s deal is a good example. South is in six spades. North’s response of two notrump was the Jacoby Forcing Raise. South precipitately bid what he thought he could make.

West leads the heart queen. Declarer wins with his ace, cashes the club ace and draws the missing trumps in two rounds. Next, South ruffs dummy’s club queen and plays a heart to West’s 10 and dummy’s king. Finally, South exits with dummy’s last heart. What should West lead now?

Knowing that South is out of hearts and clubs, West is naturally tempted to shift to a diamond (especially at the table, where there is no alarm bell ringing). However, before doing that, he should count out South’s hand. He knows that South began with five spades, three hearts, one club and, therefore, four diamonds.

With most of South’s possible diamond holdings, it doesn’t matter what West leads. The critical position occurs when South has the acejack. Then if West switches to a diamond, he will save declarer a guess for the queen. Instead, West must break the habit of a lifetime and concede a ruffand-sluff: Play a heart or a club. This leaves declarer having to guess who holds the diamond queen to make his slam.

Finally, note that six diamonds, in the 4-4 fit, is the best slam.