Perhaps the first thing a beginner at bridge learns is to count the distribution of suits around the table. To count up to 13 is not too difficult and yet a lot of us fail to make the inferential count from the clues gathered from the bidding and the opening lead, which take you to, certain clear inferences regarding the way opponents cards are distributed.
Here is a simple example. See if you can keep track of the count with inferences to about South's Final Contract of 3C with the bidding and N-S hands pictured below
West opens with the KD, continues with ace, and on East's discard of a spade, persists with the suit with a low diamond. The 10D from dummy is ruffed by East.
East now returns a heart. It is time to pause and do some counting. For South to make his 3C contract, he needs to locate the club queen. The 5 trumps, 2 aces, KS and QD add up to 9 tricks and the contract. But to run the trumps, South needs to finesse the QC. But the finesse is both ways-West or East? That is the key to the contract.
Well, let us do some thinking too and start from the inferential count as gathered from the Bidding and the play so far. Remember in bridge it is always beneficial to keep your thinking cap on and have that table presence that keeps you tuned to the moves of your opponents when they bid or fail to bid and make certain opening leads.
A crafty declarer has the mental vista to search for the motivation of the opponent's particular moves and draw inferences therefrom, the most common being that of the opening lead which can help declarer to know the distributional count and help him make the wining move. West started with 5 diamonds with East known to have a singleton. He supported his partner's response of 1H with 2H showing minimum 3 hearts which leave him with 5 black cards. How are the remaining 5 cards of the black suits distributed with endless combinations cropping up from 0 to 5.
The two-way finesse has always been a Shakespearean dilemma, of 'to be or not to be'. But in bridge sometimes the opponents do give the clues to tip the scales in declarer's favour the sure way. Can you spot the clues, either from the bidding or the opening lead? After knowing West's 8 red cards, could he have all 5 spades? Certainly not, because of West's opening bid of 1H and not 1S. So that leaves him with a holding of either, 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 spades.
Again, the inferential count tells us that in no way could he hold 0, 1, 2 or 3 spades, for then his partner would be holding a lot of spades, certainly more than hearts, in which he responded in the first place with his bid of 1H over partner's opening of 1D. Having eliminated the options of West holding either, 0, 1, 2, 3 or 5 spades, we are left with the only option of spades being divided 4-4 with West and East, which fit in with their bidding pattern. The inferential count clearly indicates that and once 4 spades are given to West, we know for sure that he cannot hold more than a singleton club, already holding 5 diamonds, 3 hearts and 4 spades.
Therefore, now the declarer's club guess turns into a certainty of a marked finesse against East, playing to the K of clubs first and finessing the 9 of clubs with complete confidence on way back to bring home the contract of 3C.
No doubt Bridge is a game of simple counting but it is also a game of sheer common sense.
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North South
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K 6 5 A 2
4 3 2 A 8 6
Q 1 0 5 4 7 6 2
K 9 6 A J 1 0 8 4
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The Bidding:
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West North East South
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ID Pass IH 2C
2H 3C All Pass
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