Knowing how to ask the right questions and answer them is key to improving your chances on any bridge hand, be it as declarer or as defender.
I’ll give you a hand along with a series of questions. First, try to answer them yourself, and then take a look at the answers.
At the end I’ll summarize the important things to remember. I hope you enjoy the challenge!
Here we have just the North and West hands, along with bidding. You’re sitting West. Answer the questions below and click the solution button when you’re ready to see how you’ve done.
Dealer South, All Vulnerable
You agreed to play standard carding with partner (for attitude: high card encourages and low card discourages; for count: high – low shows even number of cards, low – high shows odd).
You led the ♣A. Your partner played the ♣2 and the declarer the ♣4
How many points does your partner have?
How many Hearts does your partner have?
How many Spades does your partner have?
What do you hope your partner has in order to set?
How will you play?
How many points does your partner have?
Between 3-5 points: the declarer has 15-17, dummy has 11 and you have 9. So your partner is left with 3-5 points.
How many Hearts does partner have?
One. The declarer showed 4 by bidding 2♥, you have 5 and dummy has 3. So your partner is left with one.
How many Spades does partner have?
Three. The declarer showed 4 by bidding 4♠, you have 2 and dummy has 4. So your partner is left with 3.
What do you hope your partner has in order to set?
The ♠A or the ♠K. Without it the declarer can make 10 tricks as they will always manage to lose no more than 2 Clubs and max 1 more trick to your partner. If your partner has the ♠A or the ♠K, you can also manage a Heart ruff to set. Another chance to get 2 Spade tricks is to find your partner with ♠Qxx and the declarer will try a finesse to partner’s hand. So your partner will make the ♠Q and will also manage to ruff a Heart.
How will you play?
You can play low Heart at trick 2 (normally showing honor, but here it is suit preference to Club, as your partner knows you can count him to have a singleton Heart). The declarer wins and plays the ♠J to your partner ♠A. Your Partner returns Club to your ♣K and you let them ruff a Heart to set.
Things to remember
1. You can also count points when playing on defense, using your hand, dummy and the range promised by the declarer. That will help you to know what to expect from them. Here it might seem logical to switch to Diamond, but counting points will tell you that your partner can’t have ♦ AQ.
2. Count distribution: Bidding can reveal so much: You can count your partner points, but also distribution. The declarer showed here 4-4 in both majors, and you can easily count from it that your partner has 1 Heart and 3 Spades.
3. Imagine you have this hand on same bidding and same dummy:
♠Axx
♥ xxxxx
♦ x
♣AKxx
Imagine you lead the ♣A. Now counting is easier: You have 11 points, dummy has 13 and the declarer at least 1. So your partner has max 1 point which means he has no entry to his hand and therefore it would be useless to play Diamond, as he will never get the hand to let you a Diamond ruff. Distribution counting reveals your partner has a singleton Heart and xx Spade. So play Heart at trick 2 and when the declarer plays a trump – You can jump with your ♠A to protect your partner 2nd trump and play a 2nd Heart for him to ruff. Unlike our hand, you can cash the ♣K at trick 2 or before playing 2nd Heart because you have the ♠A as entry to your hand.
4. Note that bidding stayman and later 3NT means that responder must have the 2nd major suit (else, without majors, the bidding would go 1NT-3NT).
5. Though leading a low card is normally attitude, showing an honor, on this example it is meant as suit preference (same as when you let your partner ruff and show him preference on which suit to return to get another ruff).
