1. How does the Diamond suit split?
   Unknown. Can be either 2-2, 3-1 or 4-0.
2. Who has the Q?
   Unknown. Can be with East or West.
3. How will you play?
   You need to investigate. Count East’s hand: East has 7 spades. In order to find the diamond split you need to play the club and heart suits first:
   Say you play 3 rounds of clubs first to find East discards on the 3rd round. So, East has 7 spades and 2 clubs. Now play the Hearts: If East follows only once, it means he has 3 diamonds (and West has a singleton). So play the A, and if the Q doesn’t fall single from West’s hand, play another Diamond and finesse to the J to capture East’s Q. If East follows to 2 rounds of Hearts (and shows out on 3rd), it means that Diamonds are 2-2 and you just need to cash AK to drop the Q, wherever it is.
   In this particular deal, East shows out only on the 4th round of Hearts, meaning he has a singleton Diamond. That is not good news as if West’s Diamonds are QTx, the contract cannot be made. You can make the contract only if East has a stiff Q or 10. Play the K. When East shows up with the 10, play a 2nd Diamond and finesse to the 9 to capture West’s Q.

Things to remember:

• Counting is very important: You can count tricks, losers, points and distributions. Notice the bidding! East revealed more than half of his cards by bidding 3. You only need a little investigation to complete the full layout of his hand.
• Notice South’s bid after East’s 3. He cannot bid 3NT without a spade stopper, he doesn’t have 4 Hearts to bid 4 but he can Pass, showing just that (no 4 card heart and no stopper in spades), leaving the decision to North.

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