The Southeast Missourian – 2 Sep 2003
Back in June, while I was having dinner with some friends at their apartment. Wheel of Fortune was going in the background. One round had this solution: Without jokers a deck has ?? cards. The fellow who solved it could have won another U$S3.000 if he had known the correct number. Sadly, he guessed 50. Maybe we should send him a bridge beginner book.
Of course, there are some players who assume an opponent started with 12 or 14 cards. Then there are those who could find out but do not – like South on this deal.
Assume you are sitting South. After East opens three hearts, you drive into six no trump. West leads the heart two. How would you plan the play?
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A three bid promises a decent seven-card suit and some 6-10 high card points especially when vulnerable. South might have cue-bid four hearts on the second round, but assuming, as is the accepted approach, that his partner had six or seven points. South jumped to slam. (Note that six clubs will succeecd.) South won the first trick with the heart ace, cashed the club ace, and played a club to dummy’s queen.
When East discarded a heart, the contract was suddenly unmakable. South had two ways to play the clubs, not one. He should have cashed his side-suit tricks first. Declarer would have learned that East had started with three spades, seven hearts and at least two diamonds. So, he could have at most one club. South would have known to cash the club ace, then to play a club to dummy’s 10, ending with an overtrick.