Hand of the day #275
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff In today's deal from a team game, South misjud...
This conundrum was written by Eddie Kantar and was originally published in the book Kantar for the Defense - Volume 1 - you can find out all about it further down the page.
We are West.
Opening Lead: ♣Q
Declarer wins the ♣A, leads a diamond ot the queen, partner playing the ♦10, cashes the ♣K and ruffs a club. He continues with the ace and a heart. Are you counting?
At this point a low spade is led from dummy. Partner plays the ♠2 and declarer the ♠A. Declarer exits with the ♠9.
Declarer wins in dummy, draws three rounds of trumps ending in dummy, partner discarding two hearts, and ruffs a heart in the closed hand.
Declarer continues by cashing the ♣K, ♣J, and leading a low club to dummy's ♣Q. On the ♣A declarer discards a low spade. Partner discards three hearts on the clubs.
At trick ten a low spade is led from dummy.
1.What is declarer's distribution?
Declarer must be 3-2-6-2. This you know whether or not partner is giving you count signals. Declarer cannot have three hearts and play this way nor would he leave any low trumps out- standing. (Not to mention that your partner has played the highest remaining trump indicating he has no more). So much for declarer's distribution.
2.Which spade do you play?
Play the ♠K! Declarer is marked with three spades headed by the ace. He cannot logically have ♠AQx and play this way. There- fore he must have Ax and partner's queen is bare. fI you play the jack, partner must win and concede a ruff and a sluff allowing declarer to discard his remaining spade.
Key Lesson Pointers
1. When partner plays the highest trump, assume he has no more.
2. You don't need count signals from partner on every hand to work out declarer's distribution.
3. When a hand is being stripped assume declarer is playing logically and play accordingly.
4. Count, count, count, count and then count some more.
Kantar invites his reader to direct every play towards the goal of beating the contract in a variety of hands, bringing focus on counting tricks, points and distribution. Problems range from an intermediate to semi-advanced level and knowledge of basic card combinations is assumed. Each book concludes with a complete list of themes for its 100 problems.
