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            COUNTING TO NINE.

It’s is nice and straightforward when, in 3NT, you have six tricks in one suit, two in another and one in the suit they led. No degree in mathematics required then. Yet, when you seem to need tricks from some combination of all four suits, and at the same time have an opponent threatening to take enough tricks in their long suit to beat your contract, counting to nine seems an awful lot harder. Take a look:

 

2NT showed a balanced 18-19 with North raising quickly to game. 5 was led to East’s ace with 9 being returned, West playing 4. You play a club to the king with West playing Q and play Q losing to West’s king.

West exited with 10, East playing 2. You discard 3 from dummy. What now?

Do you think you should have played K at trick 2?

9 return looked awfully like the second highest of a three-card suit which meant West had started with five spades. Therefore, lose the lead twice to West or even once at the wrong time and you will be recoding a minus score.

You have probably got three tricks in diamonds, after usually losing one, a couple in hearts after losing one, two, maybe three in clubs after losing one. The only certainties are that you have two spade tricks and that some combination of the above at some point will equal nine tricks. Confused? “White coffee, please, partner or maybe Jenny’s drinks trolley is passing by?”

What to play to trick 3?

The heart suit will produce two tricks but no more. Also, if we touch hearts, and a third spade is played, we will have to finesse diamonds into the danger hand.

So, cross to dummy immediately with a club to the king to play Q. Did you notice West played Q? Interesting. Even more possibilities now. Naturally, the diamond finesse lost with West playing 10 with the air of someone ready to pounce for the killer blow. At least East contributed a spade, the 2, presumably their last.

Had your options increased or decreased?

Had West played the Q because they had to or because they wanted to? Was their holding in clubs QJx, QJ doubleton or singleton Q? I am running out of question marks. No more questions.

Combining Chances

Who has the A? Was that 10 a signal, indicating an entry in hearts, the higher of the unplayed suits? Do I never keep my promises?!

The director is lurking. Time to look:

 

If you had watched your diamond pips closely, you could have played 8 on the queen and then be able to play out three more rounds now finishing with 4 in dummy though that assumes you were going to take the club finesse or perhaps an entry to your second heart trick. Anyway, the only discards you would get would be unhelpful hearts. (We assume East would be aware of South’s problem, as unless East was bluffing, even one club discard could be revealing.)

So, there were three realistic options. Cash the high club and if West shows out, hope that East has the A or take a club finesse through East or simply hope East has the A.

As you can see, the option of combining chances did work as you would have come to 9 tricks without even touching hearts….4 clubs, 3 diamonds and 2 spades. Had clubs been 3-3 with West holding QJx and East the A, then playing a second high club would have been wrong.  

Almost all who received a spade lead failed to take 9 tricks, mainly playing on hearts first and then relying on the diamond finesse though one cunning declarer scored a quick diamond trick when they led low from their hand at trick 3 with West ducking.  It did seem better to firstly take the finesse you had to take into the danger hand and await developments.

While all tried for 9 tricks, most who received the spade lead did count to 9 but the mathematicians insisted that 13 less the 5 tricks the opponents took only equalled eight! 

So, to tomorrow and once more, you are declarer,once more in trouble!

 

East’s 2 is a Weak Two, 6-card suit. You crawl to the spade game

West leads 10 to North’s K and continues with A (8 from West), and then J. Over to you.

Richard Solomon

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