Ludington Daily News – Aug 10, 1982
South Dealer; N/S Vulnerable
Lead: 
Q
Locating a missing key card by counting the opponents’ cards as they are played is one of the most satisfying experiences possible at the bridge table. But for many players, satisfaction can change to frustration when, midway through the play, the counting effort collapses while trying to remember the suit and rank of every card played. These players should recognize that one secret of accurate counting lies in choosing what to remember, trying to memorize only what is pertinent to the issue at hand.
Consider this deal, the first in a three-part series on card-counting.
From declarer’s viewpoint, the only threat to the grand slam is losing a trick to the diamond queen. But before trying to guess which way to take the two-way finesse for the queen, South should attempt to learn the opponents’ distribution in the other three suits.
Therefore, keeping an eye on whether either defender shows out in any suit, and largely ignoring the rank of the cards played, South takes the club lead with the ace, cashes the Ace and King of trumps, then plays the king of clubs and ruffs a club.
At this stage, all that declarer knows is that spades were divided 2-2 and clubs 4-3. But when South next cashes the A-K of hearts and ruffs a heart with West showing out, he gets the break he’s been looking for. East, counted for two spades, three clubs and six hearts so far, cannot possibly hold more than two diamonds.
To complete the Count declarer leads a trump to dummy and ruffs the last club. When East follows to the fourth club, his possible diamond holding drops to one. Declarer now cashes his king to guard against a singleton queen, then makes the slam by taking the diamond finesse against West at trick twelve.
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