Count the deal from bids and plays

Eric Hoffer, a social psychologist and political scientist, said, “The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” Bridge players who can count will end most deals feeling happy — as will also their partners. In this deal, South was faced with a guess for the club queen. What should he have done after West led the heart ace and shifted to a low spade to the queen and ace? The bidding was not clear-cut. At other tables, North-South ended in six clubs, which was less good because declarer had to play the trump suit immediately. In this auction, when South ran from four spades to five diamonds, North knew that his partner had a strong hand with a long diamond suit and presumably secondary clubs. Still, the raise to six diamonds was courageous. At the table, South drew trumps and cashed the spade king. Then he took the club king and played a club to dummy’s jack. East produced the queen for down one. What are your thoughts? South might have been right; East could have started with 3=6=3=1 distribution. But if South was worried about that, after two rounds of trumps, he might have cashed his spade king. Yes, if East were 1=6=3=3, that would not have looked so good, but it was unlikely that spades were 6-1. Here, when East followed to the second spade, declarer could have played a trump to dummy’s king and ruffed a spade to get the exact count. Always try to delay the key decision until after you have learned about the other suits.