Sunday, January 13, 2002		Bridge

When East won with the Ace
by Omar Sharif

"I suppose that all top players count every hand carefully," writes a correspondent.

Well, no, it is not quite like that. To start with it would make all the play rather slow. Furthermore, on many deals, it becomes clear at an early stage that any counting, apart from drawing trumps, is totally unnecessary.

The irritating hands come when only at a late stage does it turn out that you should have been paying more attention! By contrast, on this week’s hand, it was immediately obvious that an accurate count was vital.

South dealt at game all and opened. One No-Trump. After counting and re-counting his points, North raised to Six No-trumps and all passed.

West led the nine of Diamonds to the King. East won with the Ace and returned the suit to dummy’s Queen. It was clear to declarer that there were 11 top winners and that, if the Clubs behaved, there would be a 12th trick.

He decided, however, that it would cost nothing to play off a few winners first in order to obtain a count of the hand. The Club suit, where there might be a decision to take, could be left until last.

Three rounds of Spades and three of Hearts revealed 12 of East’s cards. He had shown up with five Spades, five Hearts and at least two Diamonds. Therefore, he held at most one Club. A Club to declarer’s Ace brought the three from East and now his complete hand was known.

It was easy — the ten of Clubs finished West. If he covered, South could come to hand with the Jack of Diamonds and take the marked finesse against West’s nine of Clubs.

And if West played low on the ten of Clubs, declarer could let it run with complete confidence.