BRIDGE

YOU COUNT BETTER IF YOU WATCH CLOSELY

Elizabeth Barrett Browning nearly wrote, “How do I love bridge, let me count the suits.”

Luckily for most of us, there are few deals on which you have to count all four suits. One or two will suffice. In today’s deal, you need to keep careful tabs on just one — which?

How should South plan the play in six no-trump after West leads the spade 10?

You all know to count your top tricks before playing from the dummy at trick one. Here, declarer has 10: three spades, three hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. A 3-2 diamond split would provide two more tricks, but only at the lethal cost of two losers. Instead, South should try for four club winners. So, he plays off his two club winners. West’s spade discard is a blow, but it should impress upon declarer the necessity to keep a lookout for East’s three remaining clubs.

Next, South plays off the diamond ace and king. Lo and behold, more information. East has four diamonds to go with his five clubs, but how does that help?

East is prey for an elimination and endplay. Declarer, playing almost on autopilot, just cashes all of his remaining major-suit winners, pitching a diamond from the board and bringing everyone down to three cards. The dummy has the king-10 of clubs and the diamond eight. South retains three low diamonds. However, what does East keep?

If only one club, dummy cashes the club king and 10. If two clubs and one diamond, East is given the lead with his diamond winner and forced to lead into dummy’s club tenace.

Nicely watched and counted!