The Villages Bridge Club gives us an interesting “hand of the week” puzzle each Sunday. Here is a recent example:
East follows suit with the six of hearts. Can you find the sure way to make four hearts?
Tag Archives: Counting Losers in a suit contract
Here is a hand I played at the club recently. I am in 3 spades on the bidding shown. I messed up the fundamentals. Look at my problem and see if you can do better. 
What would be your plan? (Scroll down to see the plan I should have come up with.)
Visualizing the opponents’ hands: It looks like the king of hearts is top of a doubleton (North likely started with 7 hearts). Also, East is likely to be short in diamonds. Bottom line is that you may be able to develop a crossruff without either opponent being able to overruff. You need to cash the outside suit (clubs) before starting the crossruff. Also, you need to lead a diamond to void your hand.
Plan:
- Ruff the opening lead in dummy.
- Low club to your king.
- Low diamond toward dummy (maybe you will get lucky if West has the ace and does not play it). Assume West wins the ace and returns a trump (best defense).
- You win West’s trump lead in hand.
- Club to dummy’s ace, hoping it survives.
- Cash diamond king, discarding heart from hand.
- Ruff a diamond.
- Ruff a heart.
- Heart ruff.
10. Diamond ruff.
11. Ace of spades for your 10th trick.
Wasn’t that easy! (I pulled trumps prematurely)
Put yourself in the South seat on this hand. You are declaring 3 hearts after the auction shown below. Opening lead is the deuce of clubs. What is your plan?
Reminder of fundamentals involved:
- Think before you play to trick one.
- Count your losers.
- Remember the bidding.
- Visualize opponents’ hands as best you can.
Counting losers:
- Spades? Zero.
- Hearts? Zero
- Diamonds? Two. You are missing the ace and queen
- Clubs? Two. You are missing the king, queen, and jack.
Visualizing opponents’ hands from the bidding:
- East passed in 2nd seat, so should have fewer than 12 HCP.
- West made a takeout double after your opening bid. So, West should have an opening hand and likely shortness in hearts, 4-spades (no overcall), support for the minors.
- East advanced with 2 clubs. East must have 4 clubs or West would have fewer than 3 clubs for her takeout double (althought it’s possible West’s shape is 4-2-5-2).
- West’s rebid was 3 diamonds over your rebid of 2 hearts. West’s shape must be something like 4-1-5-3. How many hearts does that give to East? How many diamonds?
- Visualization: East’s shape is likely 4-4-1-4, and East’s singleton diamond is a worry.
Decide on your plan of play and then scroll down to see mine.
I plan to win the ace of clubs at trick one. Draw trumps and lead the 10 of diamonds, intending to let it ride. That will hold my diamond losses to one trick when West has ace, queen 5 times (10 tricks). If the finesse losses, I will still be home with 9 tricks, contract making.
I failed to concentrate on what could go wrong on this one. And what could go wrong did go wrong!
Put yourself in the South seat and see if you can do better:
Opening lead was the five of hearts. East won the ace and returned the four, I won with the king, and West played the six. I then cashed the ace and king of spades and saw West discard the nine of hearts on the second spade.
From here is looks easy: Cash the queen of hearts to discard a diamond and draw the last trump. Losers are one heart, one diamond, and one club.
Oops, there was another loser. What went wrong, and how could I have avoided the error?
10 tricks are easy on this one. But you are in five hearts. Where are you going to find the 11th winner? Here is the hand, auction, and opening lead.
Your thoughts at trick one:
- What can I infer from the opening lead?
- What can I infer about opponents’ spade holdings from the bidding?
- If my inferences from opening lead and bidding are correct, then how many cards does East have in the red suits?
- Now that I can picture East’s hand, how am I going to hold my losers to two?
Give it a try and then scroll down for the solution.
Your thoughts at trick one:
- What did you infer from the opening lead? I bet it’s a singleton!
- What can you infer from the bidding? Looks like West must have four spades for the preemptive jump raise. East must have 5 spades to the ace from opening bid.
- If your inferences from opening lead and bidding are correct, then how many cards does East have in the red suits? East has five spades and five clubs. Therefore, East holds three red cards.
Now that you can picture East’s hand, you know to go up with the ace of clubs immediately. Otherwise, East will win the trick and give West a club ruff. When a spade comes back through king in dummy you will be down two after first four tricks.
The idea is to end play East in one of the black suits. Run your seven hearts. By doing so, East must protect the black suits. So, East will be left with 5 black cards:
Now when you cash your ace of diamonds, pitching a low club from dummy, East must discard a club or the queen of spades.
- If it’s a low club, you will lead a club to the king and throw East in with a club. East will have to lead a spade from A,Q into your K3.
- If it’s the spade queen, you will lead a low spade and play low from dummy, throwing East in with the ace of spades. Now you will make 12 tricks, since East must lead into your K, J of clubs!
I saw this on BBO. Put yourself in 4th seat (both sides vulnerable). Your right hand opponent opens with a weak two spades in 3rd seat. What is your thinking holding this nice hand?
Some Considerations:
- How many tricks can your side take and what is the likely outcome?
- What do you think is your best tactic in anticpation of a competitive auction?
What’s your call? See below for my recommendation and postmortem on the hand.
You count a probable 11 tricks in hearts and clubs. All partner has to have is one ace. The only ace that might not be helpful is the ace of spades. I recommend bidding 3 spades, a michaels cuebid describing a big hand containing hearts and an unknown minor.
That’s the good bid made by the player I observed on BBO. Unfortunately, it was partner who held the unlikely ace of spades. Misfortune was compounded when opening lead wasn’t a spade. Instead it was the ace of diamonds, and opponents quickly took the other two aces for down one. Sadly it was the only table at which a spade was not led. A future post will discuss the opening lead.
You are South in a contract of four spades. Opening lead is the queen of clubs. How should you plan to play the hand given the bidding shown below?
Play of the hand: Start by counting losers: no spade losers, no heart losers (if you are careful to use dummy to ruff hearts at the right time), two diamond losers, and one club loser. It looks like you should bring this contract home. How do you give yourself the best chance to succeed?
- There is a good chance (92%) that missing diamonds will behave (splitting no worse than 4-2).
- Also, there is a good chance (95%) that spades will split no worse than 3-1.
- That means your chance for favorable splits of both suits is better than 80%.
See below for my recommended line:
It’s probably best to draw two rounds of trumps before starting the diamonds. You need to make sure a trump is left to provide an entry to dummy’s diamonds in case opponents attack hearts. Notice that the only spade honor missing in your combined holding is the ten.
Comment on the bidding: North’s 3D bid is a Bergen raise. It tells partner that North has 4-card support and less than a limit raise in spades. Marty Bergen is famous for recent innovations in bidding, and this is an example. Do you like South’s raise to game?
Here is a declarer play problem. You are South in a contract of six spades on the bidding shown. North leads the ten of clubs and this is what you see:
You assume that West would not lead the club 10 when holding the king, so you play the ace of clubs and draw trumps in 2 rounds. As you do so you observe the following from opponents:
- At trick 2 West plays the singleton queen of spades, East following low.
- At trick 3 West discards a low heart and East follows low.
- At trick 4 you lead a club, East winning the king and West following with the seven.
- At trick 5 East continues with a low club, West discards another low heart, and you win the trick while discarding a low diamond from hand.
Your 12th trick will have to come via a successful finesse. Are you counting the opponents’ hands? Which red suit finesse offers the better likelihood of success? Give it some thought and then scroll down for my decision rationale:
West showed up with a singleton spade and doubleton club. That means West started with 10 red cards and East with five. After West discards two hearts you know that West now holds 8 red cards and East 5 red cards. Odds are 8 to 5 that West holds the king of hearts. Probability that West holds the heart king is 8/13 (61.5%). It’s the same for West holding the diamond queen. I decide to go with the odds and finesse West for the heart king.
Yesterday was the first real face-to-face game Hilo Bridge Club has run since March 2020. It was a joy to see everyone again.
North had fun with a big, freak hand in the red suits on Board 10. NS can easily make five diamonds, but it’s hard to get there when East competes in spades. And the only way for EW to defeat four hearts is if East underleads the ace of spades at trick one and West gives East a diamond ruff (highly unlikely). Here is the hand:
One EW pair was allowed to play three spades doubled, making for plus 730 for a top board.
How would you bid the North hand? Do you open two clubs. Or do you open one diamond, giving yourself room for exploration at the bidding proceeds?
When opponents make an error, you need to make them pay. Can you make them pay on this hand? You are declarer in a contract of one spade. Here is the auction and what you see on opening lead of the 10 of diamonds:
The play goes as follows. At trick one you put in the queen without much hope, East covers with the king, and you win the ace.
At trick two you lead the jack of spades, won by East’s king with West following low.
At trick three East shifts to the eight of hearts, won in your hand with the ace.
At trick four you lead the 10 of spades, West following low and East showing out with the deuce of clubs.
At trick five you lead the three of clubs to dummy’s queen with both opponents following low.
At trick six you lead a low heart to your king, East following with the jack and West the four.
At trick seven you lead the nine of hearts, won by East’s queen with West following low.
At trick eight East leads the 10 of clubs and you win the ace with West playing the eight. The opponents have still not cashed their winning diamond! And you still must lose a trick to the ace of spades.
Here is the situation from your perspective with you on lead from hand at trick nine. How will you take advantage of opponents’ failure to cash their diamond winner?
I hope you did not get mesmerized by that king of clubs.
BTW, that was a risky vulnerable third hand opening bid by East. It worked out well for EW. West knew what to lead as a result. Here was East’s hand:
You opened one heart in 2nd seat and West overcalled two diamonds. Partner had enough strength to make a negative double at the two level. Having 5-5 in the rounded suits increased the value of your hand. So, you were willing to go to three clubs for your rebid. Partner took the suit preference for hearts and you bid game. Opening lead was the king of diamonds.
Here is what you saw summary of the bidding:
You were in a good contract. How would you play to make four hearts? Your thoughts on opening lead:
- West should have the ace of hearts.
- Other than that you have the remaining high hearts.
- You have the top three clubs, and there is a good chance they will split no worse than 4-2 (84%).
- You should lose no more than two spades and the ace of hearts.
- Hearts should split no worse than 4-2 (84%).
Do those clues shed light on how you should play? Please let me know by email or in comments if you are unclear on what to do at trick two.
You are South in a contract of three hearts doubled. Here is the auction and what you see when West leads the queen of clubs:
East overtakes with the club king and continues with the ace at trick two. Counting losers, you have two hearts, one diamond, and one club. The problem is you may lose trump control as defenders force you to ruff clubs. The good new is you are reasonably sure that East has the ace and queen of hearts. The bad news is that you need to get to dummy twice to finess of the ace and queen of hearts. Also, East may well have four hearts.
It looks like you will need the king of diamonds to be onside. So, you might as well make that assumption.
What card do you play at trick 3? (Remember that your are worried about losing trump control.)
I recommend discarding a diamond at trick two. That makes life difficult for East. She cannot continue clubs because dummy is now void. If she shifts to a spade you let it ride to dummy’s king. Now you can lead the 8 of hearts, expecting to to win or drive out one of East’s honors. Either way you are in control.
Similarly if she shifts to a diamond you will let that ride to dummy and play as before. You may even make an overtrick: three spades, four hearts, and three diamonds.
Here was the entire hand:
You are South declaring three diamonds after West makes a preemptive jump to two spades over your opening bid. West leads the three of spades. Here is what you see with a summary of the auction:
Trick 1: You win the king of spades, East playing the jack.
Trick 2: Then you cash the ace of clubs, both following.
Trick 3: You then lead the eight of clubs, ruffing low in dummy.
Trick 4: Next comes the three of hearts from dummy and you put in the eight, losing to West’s jack.
At trick 5 West shifts to the four of spades. What spade do you play from hand? Scroll down for the answer.
Solution: Play the nine of spades, knowing it will get ruffed. West started with six spades for the preemtive overcall. You and dummy started with a combined total of six spades. East’s jack at trick one had to be a singleton. Don’t let your ace of spades get ruffed!
You are South, having ended up in a contract of three hearts. East opened the bidding in 1st seat with one spade, and you overcalled two hearts. From there it was an interesting competitive auction, during which West and North indicated weak hands by their reluctance to bid. West leads the king of spades. Here is what you see, including details of the auction:
Trick 1: You won the ace of spades.
Trick 2: You cashed the ace of hearts.
Trick 3 you gave up a spade to East.
Trick 4 East then cashed the king of hearts, West discarding the deuce of diamonds. (See details of 1st 4 tricks above.)
At trick 5 East shifts to the three of clubs. It’s your turn: Use clues from the bidding and play to decide which card to play from hand. Scroll down to see the solution.
Solution: You know from the auction that East has the ace of clubs. Play the queen of clubs and it wins. Once you get to dummy again you will lead another club, putting in the king if East follows low. You are assured of two club tricks, knowing that the ace of clubs is onside.
The play by South seemed pretty routine on this one. It looks like South will lose one heart, two diamonds, and perhaps two clubs and one spade.
The ace of hearts was led by West, and South ruffed the next heart. Then South led a spade to the king and another back to hand, revealing a 2-2 break. At trick 5 South led a low club toward dummy, 10 from West, queen from dummy and won by East’s ace.
At trick 6 East continued with the king of hearts and North ruffed. At trick 7 declarer led a low club toward dummy’s king, West playing the jack and East the nine!
I watched in horror as declarer led a low club to seven in hand. To declarer’s surprise it won the trick. Declarer had not been watching the club spots. Cashing the eight of clubs and the remaining two clubs would bring in 11 tricks for a top board.
East erred by playing the nine of clubs when also holding the six.
South and East were not paying attention to the hierarchy of cards in the club suit. It’s hard to get newer players out of the mindset that any card lower than a 10 is “x” and inconsequential. It’s the hierarchy itself that facilitates remembering which card has risen to the top in trick taking power. After two rounds of clubs in this hand the eight had risen to boss club.
This is a recent hand on BBO where I let my instincts takeover. I made the common mistake of failing to think at trick one, and I went down in a cold contract. Opening lead is the five of hearts. What do you think I should have done?
Put yourself in my shoes and decide. Then scroll down to make sure you got it right.
I managed to go down because I overlooked the almost certain location of the king of hearts. I should win the ace of hearts at trick one, club to the ace, ruff a club, and lead the queen of hearts. If RHO ducks I pitch my last club and likely make 11 tricks. If RHO plays the king, I ruff high and lead a top trump, losing only one club and ace of diamonds.
Try this from Mike Lawrence’s article “Trick one quandry” on page 56 of the April 2020 issue of Bridge Bulletin*. You are East and must decide what to do at trick one:
Time to practice visualizing declarer’s hand. Try answering the following questions:
- How many spades does declarer have?
- How many losers does declarer have? Or, conversely, how many winners does your side have?
- What was your partner’s opening bid?
- With clues from your answers, what card do you play at trick one and what is your plan for the defense?
How did you do?
*Bridge Bulletin is a great source for learning. I recommend you join the ACBL if you have not already done so.
*Title is same as that of book by Mike Lawrence
Here is an interesting hand in which Mike Lawrence shares his thinking. Mike is sitting South.
The transfer did not get accepted after the lead directing double because (by partnership agreement) North held fewer than three spades. Mike decided to bid game with the known 8-card fit.
Opening lead was the seven of diamonds, and East won with the ace. What diamond did Mike play from hand at trick one and why does it matter?
Tackle this question first in the comments, and I then will have more insights from Mike Lawrence on this particular hand.
You are South in a contract of three hearts. Here is the auction and what you see after opening lead of the queen of diamonds:
Counting losers like a good declarer, you see two spades, two hearts, and one diamond. You can hold your spade losers to one if ace of spades is onside. How about the diamond loser? East has gotten off to a good lead.
Noticing your combined holding in clubs, you win the ace of diamonds. Then cash the king of clubs and low club, finessing the jack. If the finesse wins, you have a parking place for your diamond loser on the ace of clubs. If the finesse loses, your spade king is protected from attack. Also, you can win any diamond lead and still park your remaining diamond on the ace of clubs.
BTW, I don’t recommend opening two hearts vulnerable with the South hand. South does not have the necessary five playing tricks (within three tricks of making contract when vulnerable). South was lucky to find North with an opening hand and queen-nine third of hearts.
Here is a somewhat contrived example of “sure tricks” by George S. Coffin. (Contrived because the bidding is unrealistic given the unbalanced nature of the hands.) It nonetheless gives you an interesting and counterintuitive declarer play puzzle to solve. How are you going to bring home 10 tricks?
South opened the bidding one heart, and West overcalled two clubs. Partner and right-hand opponent both passed. South bid four hearts, ending the auction.
The play started with West cashing the Ace and King of clubs, East discarding a low spade on the second club. At trick three West led the 10 of hearts on which East discarded another spade! Where is that certain 10th trick coming from? Over to you: