Learning how to find extra tricks. Bridge Column for October 3, 2003, Harvey Bernstein Both sides vulnerable. South deals. North S: K 8 6 4 2 H: A K 7 D: A J C: K 8 5 West East S: 10 5 S: A J 9 H: 8 5 3 2 H: 6 4 D: K D: 10 9 8 5 4 2 C: Q 9 7 6 3 2 C: 10 4 South S: Q 7 3 H: Q J 10 9 D: Q 7 6 3 C: A J The Bidding: South West North East Pass Pass 1S Pass 2NT Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass This hand was played at a matchpoint duplicate game and is a good illustration of excellent work by the declarer. While South can count twelve high card points, it is correct to pass this hand in first or second seat. North bids one spade and South has a number of options available. Two no trump shows a balanced hand with 11 or 12 points and appears to be the best bid. North has no reason to bid anything but three no trump. West leads the six of clubs and the declarer pauses to think about the contract. The first task is counting tricks. After the club lead, declarer can count four heart tricks, one diamond trick, and three club tricks for sure. It will be easy to develop a spade trick for nine, however, those pairs in a spade contract are likely to make ten or eleven tricks, so nine tricks won't be enough for a good result. The second task is finding a source of additional tricks. If the diamond king is singleton or doubleton with West, that suit will provide three tricks instead of one, and the spade suit is also a possibility. With that in mind, declarer wins the first trick in hand with the jack and leads a small diamond. The king appears from West and the ace wins the trick. Now we have ten sure tricks with a spade for eleven. Certainly that will be a good score because spade contracts are going to make no more than eleven tricks. Finding the ace of spades should come next. Declarer plays a small spade from the dummy. East plays the nine and declarer plays the queen, which wins. A small spade is led towards the dummy. West plays the ten and declarer calls for a small spade from dummy. He is hopeful that East started with the ace-nine doubleton. When East wins the jack it is apparent that he started with ace-jack-nine. East gets off lead with a small club. Declarer wins the ace and plays a heart to the ace. Before he cashes his heart tricks he plays the jack of diamonds and the king of clubs. On the club trick he discards a small spade. Now the king of hearts and a heart to the queen leaves this ending: North S: K 8 6 H: D: C: West East S: S: A H: 8 H: D: D: 10 9 C: Q 9 C: South S: H: J D: Q 7 C: When South plays the jack of hearts it is easy to see that East should discard the ace of spades, but in order to do that, East must have been counting the spade suit, if not the entire hand. This defender was not doing that and discarded the nine of diamonds. Making six was the top score on this deal. Yes, East could have cashed the ace of spades after he won the jack, but that is why declarer made that play early in the hand, so that it would not appear to be the right thing to do. Then, in the end game, East found himself subject to a "memory squeeze", having to determine if South still had a spade to get to the king in dummy. It wasn't anything special. Declarer simply played the hand in a way that would offer the defender a chance to make the wrong decision. You will know that your game is improving when you find yourself thinking along these lines during the planning of the play. _______________________________________________________ Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.