MONTHLY  HAND                    NOV 1999 

 
   NORTH
  $ Q 10 9 8 7
  ! Q 10 9
  uA 4
  # K J 2 
   WEST    EAST
  $ K 6 3    $ A J 4 
  ! 7 6 2    ! 5 4 
  u Q J 10 9    u 8 6 5 2
  # A 7 3    # 10 9 6 2 
   SOUTH
  $ 5 2
  ! A K J 8 3
  u K 7 3
  # Q 5 4

 
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
1! PASS 1 $ PASS
1 NO TRUMP PASS 4 ! ALL PASS

 
INTRODUCTION
     THIS MONTH'S TOPICS:  Counting tricks
                                                   Trumping losers in Dummy

     Bridge is a game of counting: counting High Card Points, Distributional Points, trump and finally counting tricks. But how do you count tricks?  There are two complementary approaches: counting winners in a No Trump contract; and counting losers in a suit contract. 
     It is very difficult to formulate a plan or a strategy without counting. Counting sort of makes patent the Declarer's overall approach to the hand.
     Once the the count is taken and the Declarer discovers that there are too many losers, then the problem is: how to get rid of the loser?  The above hand illustrates one such method for eliminating a loser. 

 
BIDDING
     South with 13+ points opens 1! and  North makes a temporizing bid of 1$. North will support the Hearts later.  South with a Minimum opener (13 - 15) points rebids No Trump at the lowest possible level.  North (with 13 points) now knows that the combined points between the North/South hands is 26 to 28. 
     Definitely in the Game Zone (26 points) but not the Slam Zone (33 points).  If North now supports Hearts with a bid of 2! or 3! South might pass.  So North bids game at 4!. All pass.

 
OPENING LEAD
  A good  Opening Leader is like a good doctor: first do no harm.  From West's point of view a Club or a Spade might give up a trick.  So let's look at the red suits.  A trump lead is safe but a bit too passive.  A Diamond lead however, attacks and is safe. 
     The safety is because of the four card sequence.  It is also possible to promote one of these Diamonds into a winner. (If partner has a Diamond honor or if the Declarer and Dummy have three Diamonds each.)
     It is standard to lead the top of a sequence.  This tells partner where the next lowest card is.  West leads the Q u.

 
PLAY
  Dummy comes down.  Does South immediately grab the Ace?  No!  Declarer must make a plan and a good time to do it is before playing to the first trick.  A good plan is based on counting.  In a suit contract Declarer counts losers.  So let's do it: 
      2 Spades (when counting losers assume the worst distribution and all finesses off side); 0 Hearts; 1 Diamond; and 1 Club.  That is 4 losers; one too many.  What is Declarer going to do? Cry? Leave the room?  No! Find a way to get rid of one of the losers.  Putting it in your pocket or throwing it on the floor is not really acceptable.
      PLAN: The Club and Spade losers seem unavoidable.  But what about Diamonds?  There are three in South's hand and two in Dummy.  An unequal situation. So after the Ace and King are played, the third Diamond in the South hand can be trumped in Dummy. This eliminates the Diamond loser.
      PLAY: Win the opening lead with the A u.  Then play the K u, and trump a Diamond in Dummy. That's it! No Diamond losers. Now pull the Defender's trump (Win the second trump lead in the hand and play a third round).  Eventually give up a Club trick and two Spade tricks, making 4 !.

    QUESTION: Why not play trump after winning the first Diamond trick?
     Answer

 
DEFENSE 
     There is not much the Defenders can do.  They will just get two Spade tricks and the A #. 

 
 

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