Knowing how to ask yourselves the right questions and then answer them is the key to improve your chances on any bridge hand, be it as declarer or as defender.
I’ll give you a hand below, and a series of questions – like a riddle! Try to answer these questions by yourself. Then look at the answers, which will be presented together with the full deal.
At the end we’ll summarize a few important “Things to remember” for each problem. Enjoy!
Dealer West, E-W Vulnerable
West led the ♦AKQ. East discarded a Heart on the 3rd round of Diamonds and West continued with the ♦10.
- How many losers do you have?
- How are opponents’ points divided?
- How is the Diamond suit divided?
- How is the Heart suit divided?
- How is the Spade suit divided?
- How is the Club suit divided?
- Will you ruff the 4th Diamond? If yes, with which Club? If not, why not?
- How will you play?
- How many losers do you have?
Six: 1 Heart, 4 Diamonds, 1 Club. - How are opponents’ points divided?About 12 points with West and 6 with East from the bidding.
- How is the Diamond suit divided?
West has 4 diamonds, and East has 2 diamonds, because East followed to 2 rounds of diamonds. - How is the Heart suit divided?
At least 5 hearts with East and at most 4 with West. Opponents have 9 Hearts between them. West didn’t open 1♥, therefore he has at most 4 cards and East has at least 5. - How is the Spade suit divided?
East has at least 5 spades, and West has at most 2. If East had 4 cards in Spade, he would have bid 1♥ with his 5-carder Heart. With 5-5 in both majors, East bids Spades first. Also, if West had 3 Spades, he would have shown support by doubling the 2♣ bid – this is called a support double. - How is the Club suit divided?
At least 3 clubs in West and at most one in East. East’s hand is known by now: At least 5-5 in the majors and 2 Diamonds – Therefore he can have at most 1 Club. - Will you ruff the 4th Diamond? If yes, with which Club? If not, why not?
Don’t ruff the 4th Diamond. Discard a Heart instead. If you ruff with a low Club, you risk an overruff by East. Ruffing with the ♣10 is not safe either, as East could hold the stiff ♣Q. Ruffing with the ♣K is not good either as it will be impossible now to capture the ♣Q. Throw a Heart. This is called a loser on loser play and it will make you lose this trick, but you would have given a Heart anyway. Ruffing the 2nd Heart is easy and there is no risk that East will overruff. - How will you play?
Discard a Heart on the 4th round of Diamonds and let opponents with the ♦10. Win any return by West, play the ♣A and if the ♣Q doesn’t fall from East – play another Club and finesse to the ♣10. Play the ♣K, dropping West’s ♣Q. Later you can ruff your Heart loser with dummy’s last Club. That way you lose only 4 Diamond tricks.
Things to remember
a. How to count losers when playing a trump contract? Many players don’t do this correctly! You need to choose one of the hands, preferably the one with the longer trump, and count from there. We call this the MASTER hand. The other hand is called the SHORT hand. You count from the MASTER hand how many tricks you might lose in each suit. So if, for example, you have xx in one suit in the master hand and Axx in the same suit in the SHORT hand – You count 1 loser, as 1 card will be played with the Ace, you lose the 2nd to the opponents and you can ruff the 3rd one = You lose 1 trick. BUT if you have xxx in the master hand Ax and in the short Ax – You count 2 losers! Yes, 2. And you will indeed have 2 losers until you ruff that 3rd card in the short hand (or discard it on a side suit). So you count 2 losers but you can plan how to get rid of the losers. That is why in the example above you counted 4 Diamond losers.
b. If the trump length is equal in both hands, say 4-4, you choose 1 hand as the master (normally the more balanced hand) and try to win more tricks by ruffing in the “short” hand.
Example:
You play 4♥. How do you count losers?
– If West is the master hand: 1 Spade, 0 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 2 Clubs = 5 losers
Plan: Ruff 2 diamonds in the short hand. This allows you to score 6 trump tricks instead of 4 and eliminate the 2 Diamond losers.
– If East is the master hand: 2 Spades, 0 Hearts, 0 Diamonds, 3 Clubs = 5 losers
Plan: Ruff the fourth spade and the fourth club in West’s hand (unless the suits split 3-3).
You can see that the first plan is much easier. Take West as the master hand and ruff 2 Diamonds in dummy.
c. Bridge is ALL about counting. You can count tricks, losers, points and distribution. Here we discussed a wonderful hand showing you how to count distribution. Bidding helps you count the suits that have been bid, but also the unbid suit (Heart). When counting 3 suits, you can count the 4th suit too (which is the trump suit here).
d. Note West’s PASS after the 2♣ overcall. A common mistake would be a 2NT bid. That bid shows 18-19 points. Why? Because East’s bid shows 6+ points. So if responder changes the suit at the first level showing 6+ points, 1NT is 12-14, and 2NT shows 18-19. If your opponent overcalls at the 2nd level – opener can PASS to show a minimum opening, as he knows his partner will have another chance to bid. And it’s logical to play this way, as you don’t want to play 2NT with 12 points vs 6… If responder changes suit at the 2nd level, showing 10+ points, then a 2NT rebid by opener shows 12-14 and 3NT shows 18-19. If you are playing 2 over 1 you can agree otherwise.
e. What is “loser on loser”? This is a common play in Bridge. It is used when it is not convenient to ruff, for example because there is a risk of overruff, like here. You can also use it to cut communication between opponents (see my previous article “Seeing through cards #1” for an example of such play called “the scissors coup”). You can also use it when planning an endplay and when you don’t want to shorten trumps from your long hand in order to maintain control. It is also used to prevent the dangerous hand from winning the lead.
f. There is a statistical rule called: “8 ever, 9 never”. This means that when you have 8 cards in a suit and you are missing the Q, it is better to try to finesse. But, when you have 9 cards and you miss the Q – it is better to cash AK and play for the Q to drop. However, as you can see here, there is NO substitute for COUNTING! If you count distribution and know that the suit will not split 2-2, forget about the statistics. Only use statistics and probabilities when you have no clues from the bidding or play.
Comments
23 responses to “Seeing through cards #3”
Nice!
evident nu tai si arunc o cupa numaratoarea spune ca e este scurt de trefla
probabil 5-5-2-1
very nice! thanks!!!
I only see the cards given to N and S. Can’t see E and W. Any solution to that issue?
It is a play problem you only see your cards and the dummy.
Thank you, interesting article.
Interesting
I was able to figure out the distribution of all the suits and then figure out the play, but how do you that quickly while actually playing. Where do you start?
Very interesting but how do you have time for to figure it all out.
Very good
Shows how a little thought pays off
In a system that we play locally, in case of equal length in majors, we call 1H first in response to a 1C/1D opening bid by the partner. This ensures that a 4-4 heart fit is not missed. The opener calls 1S if his hand has 4-3 in majors.
Please comment
Glad I got all the answers correct!
Could you please provide the link to the articles “Seeing through cards #1 & #2”?
Excellent article
West has an opening hand most probably 12 points with 5+ diamonds ,4 hearts . East has 5 spades and 5 hearts and 5 or six HCPs. West has K hearts
They will lead diamonds and from that I will see who has the Q of clubs. I have 4 losers and possible 1 more in clubs.
very instructive
Great problem to analyse!
Thank you so much for putting this out there. It is so important to practice hands with imediate feedback if one was right or wrong – great explanation and so valuable for advanced beginners.
Got it all but I wish they would give us time to figure it out. I love watching the top players with masses of time to figure things out and then declaring when it is clear,
I guess East shape is 5521 weakish. because west did not make a support X. He cannot have 5 hearts. I will toss a heart in dummy on the 4 dia. = 9 tricks
THANK YOU LOVE YOUR LESSON
I ONLY RECEIVED #3 HOW ABOUT THE OTHER HANDS
Assuming speed will pick up with practice, practice, practice!!
I came to the solution but there is no time while you are playing. It took me about 7 minutes. I enjoyed it very much