Bridge has its own techniques to handle certain situations where a judgment is called for. Of all the several techniques ranging from the sophisticated trump coup to the several end play situations, counting technique is perhaps the earliest and yet often ignored. To put a simple example that could well he a classic example in counting north south reach a contract of 4S on the following bidding with these hands:
The bidding:
The opening lead from west is the KH, followed by AH. High low from east with JH and 7H showing a doubleton west obliges partner with a heart to ruff; east returns with club 10 which south takes with the ace. Trumps are drawn, west having 2 and east 3. Now placing the reader in the south seat, let us ask him to plan the continuation. This is an open and shut hand. Declarer has 9 tricks on top-3 in clubs, 4 trumps and the AK of diamonds. The problems boil down to the two way finessing position in diamonds for the elusive 10th trick which can go either way if declarer mis-guesses. But misguess may not be the right word. Why? The answer lies in the Bridge technique of counting. How do you go about it? Yes, first cash the remaining 2 club honours to discover that east began with the 10 2 doubleton. Any ideas now for the correct finesse of diamonds; who has the likely QD - east or west?
Well, let us try to reconstruct west's possible holding. He has followed spades with 3 and 2; He has already revealed his 5 carded heart suit headed by the A K 10 5 3. East has followed to only 2 clubs - the 10 and 2, so west is holding a 5 carder club suit of J 9 6 5 4. Where does that leave him in diamonds - a singleton? There you have it so easy and clear. Just play the KD and if the singleton QD does not drop, take the marked finesse of the JD to make your 10th trick and the bid contract of 4S.
Let us now come to the counting technique to discover the missing honours of suits held by the opposition by looking at the distribution clues like for example with spade as trumps, you reach a position where you need to guess in clubs with trumps drawn and the following cards remaining in NS hands:
Here with no help from bidding it is a pure guess as to who holds the ace and queen of clubs. But as always, before taking the plunge, look for the distributional clues through counting. Suppose you first play off the AK of hearts and trump the third heart in your hand to discover that east who remained silent throughout held 7 hearts to the Q J 10 9 8 7 6. Can he have the AC? Most likely not, otherwise he would have entered the auction.
Let us test the reader on this technique with our final illustration where the following bidding takes place on the north south hands:
The opening lead is the KD. Plan your play as south with 6 trumps tricks, 2 club tricks, a ruff and the diamond ace give you 10 tricks. Conversely if you go for 3 diamond ruff in hand, 5 trumps in dummy, the ace of clubs and ace of diamonds would still leave you a trick short with the decision to guess right in heart as to who holds the AH. Looking to west's double most likely it could be west. But better to play on first. When you start ruffing diamonds, you find east with only 7 6 3 and west with K Q J 10 5. Ruffing the third club in dummy after finding trumps 1-1, with west holding JS, you are now poised to take the final decision in hearts. Any guesses as to whether west or east holds the AH?
Yes, it has to be east, for west has already turned up with 9 HCPs. Holding AH, he would not have passed in the first instance. So going up with the KH is the winning line all because of first finding the evidence to do so.
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North
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A Q 8 7
Q 9 4
K 10 9
8 7 3
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South
K J 9 4
8 6 2
A J 4
A K Q
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N E S W
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Pass Pass 1NT Pass
2C Pass 2S Pass
4S Pass Pass All Pass
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South
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A 3
4
-
10 4 3 2
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North
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Q 9 8 6 4
J 9 7
A 8 4 2
6
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South
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A K 10 7 5 2
K 10 8
9
A K 10
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The bidding:
W N E S
P P P 1S
Double Re-double 2C Dbl
2D 3S P 4NT
Pass 5D P 6S
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All Pass
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North
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8 7
A K 2
-
K J
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