Lire les cartes à la table de bridge
Partie 3 – Trouvez la dame Bienvenue à tous ! Avez-vous pratiqué vos nouvell...
Welcome back everyone. Have you been practicing your newly discovered counting skills on BBO? I hope so, because it is time to put it all together for your FINAL EXAM! Don’t get nervous, folks, we won’t be grading this 😊.
Over the past two articles, I have shown you how to count the shapes and the values around the bridge table, and now it’s time to play a fun game as your final practice session with me. We are going to play “FIND THE QUEEN.”
In each of the following examples, you will be declaring a contract that will always include a two-way finesse for the queen of a suit. Your job is to take the hands and the information provided (auction and card play) and decide which player has the queen of the suit you are looking to solve.
Take your time with this and try not to read ahead to the answer. All of the information is out there for you to make the correct plays, so don’t rush it. Good luck and have fun.
East started the auction by opening 1♥ as the dealer. South overcalled 1NT, and North raised to 3NT.
Opening lead: ♥Q
Which player has the Queen of Diamonds? Plan your finesse accordingly.
To solve Hand One, we have to count the points around the table. Always do this when one or both of the opponents have provided information during the auction. On this hand, the 1♥ opening bid by East is almost completely revealing, and the unorthodox Queen of Hearts lead by West should give you all you need to play the diamond suit correctly. Count those points.
North – 10, South – 16 = 26 total for N/S.
East opened the bidding, so give them 12 points on average. That gives us 38 points total! This means that West has 2 or fewer points, and they’ve just led the queen of their partner’s suit.
You could also solve this the other way: We have 26 total points (N/S), the lead is the Queen of Hearts — that’s 28 total points. If West also has the Queen of Diamonds, how many points are left for East’s opening bid? Just 10 points. Can’t be true (unless East is a maniac, and we can’t help those things 😊).
That’s it for Hand 1, count those points and find that queen in East, which is where it certainly was.
South opened 1♠. West overcalled 2♠ (Michaels cue bid showing 5x5 in hearts and one of the minor suits). North now bid 3♥ (may seem funky but really just a normal cue bid raise with North bidding West’s known 5-card suit), and South now jumped to game with 4♠.
Opening lead: ♥A
After the Ace of hearts wins trick one, West continues with the King of hearts, which we trump in our hand. We then play the Ace of spades and lead low to the King in dummy and see both opponents follow. Have we solved the problem yet? What’s your next play? (starting from dummy)
Here we are after drawing our two rounds of trump, and the question I left you with was, do we have enough information for our diamond play? The answer is no! We know that West is 5x5 in two suits, but we can’t be certain which of the minor suits they have yet. The only way to find out is to play one of them. We are trying to solve diamonds and also always have a club loser, so that’s our play here.
You play the Jack of clubs, and it goes low, and you follow low, and West wins the Queen of clubs. West returns a low heart to East’s queen and your 6 of trumps. You now cash the Ace of clubs (everyone follows) and then trump a club in dummy with West following and East now showing out. FIND THE QUEEN OF DIAMONDS NOW. What card will you play next (you’re in dummy)?
This hand was all about the shape. To solve diamonds, we just need to determine West’s shape. After drawing trump, we know West has at most 1 or 0 cards in their fourth suit (5-5-2-?). But we do not know which of the minor suits they have 5 cards in. This is why we must play clubs first before guessing our diamond suit.
The club plays confirm West was 2-5-1-5, so we have one obvious solution here. We can’t know for certain exactly where the queen is, but we have an easy and safe way to confirm its location. Simply cash the Ace of Diamonds from dummy. We know West has only 1 diamond. If it’s the queen, it will drop now, and if not, we will have a marked finesse to take against East on the next trick. Easy game, eh?
East deals and opens 2♥, South overcalls ♠, West raises to 3♥, and we find ourselves in 4♠ as South.
Opening lead: ♥5
We play low from dummy, and East wins their Jack and then leads the King of Hearts. You trump in your hand and play the Ace of Spades and see both players follow low. You now cash the King of Spades and see West show out and East follow with the Jack.
Find the Queen of Clubs. What’s your next play?
Count those points. East has shown up with the Ace, King, and Jack of Hearts and the Jack of Spades so far.
Note: we can be confident it’s AKJ exactly because West led a low heart initially (they’re not going to lead away from an Ace versus our suit contract).
So we know that East has shown up with 9 high card points so far and also preempted to start the auction (showing at most 10 high card points). East doesn’t have any more room for the Queen of Clubs, so it’s in the West player’s hand.
East is the dealer and passes, and then N/S bid without interference to 4 Spades.
Opening lead: ♦4
You win the Ace of Diamonds in your hand and play the Queen of Spades. It goes low, and you play low (classic finesse), and this loses to East’s King. East now cashes the Ace and King of Hearts and then plays a third heart, which you trump in your hand. FIND THE QUEEN OF CLUBS. What play do you make next?
This is the toughest one because it’s not about what one of the players did during the auction; it’s about what one of the players didn’t do! We’re counting points again, and the key to this hand is recognizing that East could have opened the bidding but chose to pass. Then, through the first few tricks, they have shown up with 10 high card points. We know we are opening every 12-point hand, so based on that information, we can put the Queen of Clubs in the West player’s hand and finesse accordingly.
CONGRATULATIONS on completing your final exam! No matter the results you achieved, I hope your mind is starting to get used to looking around the table for more information and using it to solve your play problems both as declarer and as defender.
Your journey is not complete, folks, take what you’ve learned here and keep practicing both online and live. If you keep up this great work, your card play will continue to improve until you’re playing like an expert.
Thank you so much for reading, and I will look forward to your questions and comments.
Read the first part here, and the second part here.
Rob Barrington is a professional bridge player and world renowned bridge instructor. He is the founder of bridgelesson.com and teaches large online courses on that site and through his popular YouTube channel. Rob resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.
