This deal follows continues the month’s theme of counting the opponents’ HCP.

Good Declarers also routinely count the HCP that appear in the opponents’ hands … closely related to Remembering the Auction.

This is not the most swashbuckling auction ever to appear in Bridge Bites but the deal does provide a test for Declarer’s powers of deduction.  Cover up the E-W hands if you would like to test your own powers.

 Both Vulnerable 

West leads the ♣J won by East’s Ace and it takes half a nano-second for East to find the ♥Q shift.  You could duck Hearts twice, hoping that West has the doubleton ♥A, but that would give East 5 Hearts and he would be unlikely to sell out to 1♠ in that case.  So, you hopefully play the ♥K, taken by West’s Ace.  Two more Hearts are won by East’s ♥JT, then a Club which you win.  The ♠A and ♠K are cashed, followed by the ♠J to East’s Queen (West following).

Back comes East’s last trump, and decision time has arrived!  You’ve already lost 5 tricks, and must avoid the loss of two Diamonds if you are to make your contract.  A Diamond to the Jack?  Or a Diamond to the King?  Do you have your guessing shoes on?

Guess?  What guess?  Let’s reflect upon East’s bidding.  Oh, that’s right, he didn’t bid – which is the whole point of this hand.  So far East has shown up with ♣A, ♥QJ, and ♠Q.  That’s 9 High Card Points (HCP).  Can East also have the ♦A?  Absolutely not!  He passed originally, that ♦A would give him 13 HCP and too much for said Pass.  So, you lead a Diamond towards the board, West smoothly plays low, and you rise majestically with the ♦K.  Making 7 tricks thanks to a little deduction.

Post Script: Upon winning the ♥A, West would have done better to shift fiendishly to a low Diamond, putting Declarer to the test in that suit before all the clues had been collected!

This post is courtesy of: BRIDGE BITES from the American Contract Bridge League by Brian Gunnell