Countdown to Winning Bridge II By Tim Bourke

Source: Countdown to Winning Bridge By Tim Bourke, Marc Smith

The Mechanics of Counting I By Tim Bourke

Clues from the Bidding

In the early days of bridge, you were supposed to have a decent hand to open, and even more so to compete once the opponents had opened the bidding. Everything revolved around avoiding unnecessary penalties. In the modern game, the philosophy is almost exactly the opposite. Players take great risks to get in a bid that will direct the lead, or might simply disrupt their opponents’ auction. This kind of approach can be a double-edged sword, however: competitive auctions often provide the eventual declarer with critical information. Sometimes, the bidding warns him of bad breaks; on other occasions it locates the defenders’ high cards. Our first hand illustrates how an innocent opening bid can make life easier for declarer:

Despite a combined 27 HCP and a 5-4 trump fit, when you count your tricks there are only nine. You have a certain spade lose and, probably one in diamonds (barring  QJ doubleton), as well as potential losers in the other two suits. It seems you will need either the K onside or the Q to drop doubleton. Now consider the same hand with East as the dealer:  

Now your contract is virtually assured, since East surely has the K. The defense starts with a trump to the ace and another trump, everyone following, so you win in dummy and lead a heart towards the queen. Whether East rises with the king or not, your contract is secure. Now let’s make West the dealer.

Suppose West leads ace and another trump. This time you can expect at least twelve of the missing high-card points to be on your left. One line of play to take advantage of this information is to win the second trump in dummy and lead a diamond to the ten (to keep East off lead if he has the jack). Let’s say West wins and exits safely with a diamond. It is now a simple matter to cash your diamond winners and play three rounds of clubs. Unless the Q drops (in which case you have ten tricks), West will be forced to win the third round. He will then have to concede your tenth trick, either by leading a heart away from his king or by giving you a ruff-and-discard in a minor suit. Opening the bidding with twelve or thirteen high card points is quite normal, but doing so in the two auctions above pinpointed the defenders’ high cards. All that was left was for you to make use of that information. Making the most of all the available information is the theme of our second hand, which was originally presented as a BOLS Bridge Tip by the legendary Bobby Wolff. The lesson is well worth repeating.

The hand occurred in a team-of-four match. The auction and play were identical at both tables but one declarer based his actions on flimsy reasoning while the other backed a certain winner. East wins the A, returns a diamond to West’s ace, and ruffs the second round of diamonds with the 2. East then exits with a club on which West plays the 4. Clearly you cannot afford a trump loser, so you cross to dummy’s A and lead the 9. What do you do when East follows with the 4 and, more importantly, why? As a hint, ask yourself what information you can glean not only from what an opponent did, but also from what he did not do. In the match, both declarers ran the 9 and, when West discarded on the trick, they repeated the trump finesse to score up their game. One declarer commented that West had already shown up with five points in diamonds so it was likely that East had both spade honors for his opening bid. Is this a sufficiently good reason for taking the double spade finesse? Even without the J, East would have twelve points and a singleton — surely enough for an opening bid.

Why did the second declarer also play West for a spade void? The answer is obvious if you think about what East did not do — he did not open 1. He opened 1 on a four-card suit, and he also had a singleton diamond. Since he would not open 1 with only four clubs holding a five-card major, East must be exactly 4-4-1-4. West therefore had no spades. Wolff’s BOLS Tip was, ‘Do not be content simply to work out the high cards a defender is likely to have for the bids he made. Also try to picture his distribution, for this may provide an even surer guide to the winning play.’

In our next example, West has an opening bid including eleven black cards. Most of us would bid as this West did, but notice what much easier the play becomes when declarer is armed with a blueprint of the distribution:

Look at just the North-South cards. Had North been the dealer, the bid­ding might easily have been 1 -(Pass)-3NT — not nearly so helpful as the actu­al auction. With West bidding twice opposite a passing partner, you can imme­diately place him with at least ten black-suit cards. When a defender has only three unknown cards at the outset, it is fairly easy to determine his exact distri­bution at an early stage. You can also place most of the outstanding high cards with the opener.

The 7 is led, and dummy’s 10 holds trick one. You can count seven tricks (three spades with the aid of the finesse and four top red-suit winners). As an eighth trick can be built in clubs by force, you lead that suit at trick two. West takes the K and exits with a spade to dummy’s jack. East discards a heart and you make a mental note that spades were 6-1. Pursuing the aim of developing a club trick, you continue the suit. East’s diamond discard is no surprise and confirms eleven of West’s cards. West wins the A and returns the suit as East throws a second diamond. You cash the K and West follows. When he also follows to the his K original distribution is revealed as 6-1-1-5 (and East’s as 1-6-5-1). The position is now:

You still need to generate an extra trick. The J seems to be your only prospect but you might wonder how that card can ever be a winner given East’s holding in the suit. You have a complete count of the hand, so a new perspec-tive might offer some clues. Move around the table and put yourself in East’s seat for a moment. If the A is cashed, what do you suppose he will discard? If East discards a heart, then you will be able to cash the A and exit with a heart to leave him on play — with only diamonds left, he will have to lead away from the Q. If, instead, he discards a diamond, then two rounds of that suit will establish dummy’s long diamond while the A remains as an entry. Either way, the J will be your ninth trick. Now that you have the idea, it’s time to test your counting skill as declarer:You cannot avoid losing two spade tricks and the A, so you must avoid a second diamond loser. To achieve this goal, you will have to find a defender with the A singleton or doubleton, and you will have to ‘guess’ whether that person is East or West.

You start by winning the A and drawing trumps, noting West’s club discard on the second round. When you lead the J from dummy, West wins the K and tries to cash a club, which you ruff. East wins the second round of spades with the ace and exits safely with a third spade. You are at the crossroads. Which defender do you play for the A?

West has shown up with eight points in the black suits plus a singleton heart. If he has a doubleton A his hand will look something like:

With either of these hands, West surely would have bid over your 1 opening. You should therefore play East for the doubleton A. You cross to dummy with a trump and lead a diamond to your king. If that wins, hold your breath and duck the second round of diamonds to what you hope is East’s now bare ace. The full hand is:

Often, you will need to combine a number of factors to help you make the winning choice from among the various options. Clues from an opponent’s bidding, or lack of it, are an integral part of the jigsaw puzzle. You may have to base your play on how you decide a particular suit is breaking, or on which defender you think holds a key honor card. Counting will often provide the information you need to reach the correct conclusion. Drawing inferences from the bidding is a theme we shall return to continually. When the opponents get into your auction, sometimes they prevent you from reaching your best contract or are able to find a profitable sacrifice. They have won those battles. To balance the ledger, you must extract full price from the information provided by their bidding when you do become declarer.

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LESSONS FROM THIS ARTICLE

• Always remember the bidding.
• Take note of what an opponent’s bids show.
• Take note when an opponent tails to bid, and use this information to help you place high cards and figure out the distribution.
• When a defender shows a distributional hand in the bidding, concentrate on discovering his exact shape early.
• Once you can ‘see’ a defender’s hand, mentally move around the table and consider the play from his perspective.

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