Seeing Through Cards #8

South dealer, N-S vul


West leads the ♠5. East wins your ♠Q with his ♠A and returns the ♠J. West discards and you win with the ♠K.

1. How does the Diamond suit split?
2. Who has the ♦Q?
3. How will you play?

Solution:

1. How does the Diamond suit split?
   Unknown. Can be either 2-2, 3-1 or 4-0.
2. Who has the ♦Q?
   Unknown. Can be with East or West.
3. How will you play?
   You need to investigate. Count East's hand: East has 7 spades. In order to find the diamond split you need to play the club and heart suits first:
   Say you play 3 rounds of clubs first to find East discards on the 3rd round. So, East has 7 spades and 2 clubs. Now play the Hearts: If East follows only once, it means he has 3 diamonds (and West has a singleton). So play the ♦A, and if the ♦Q doesn't fall single from West's hand, play another Diamond and finesse to the ♦J to capture East's ♦Q. If East follows to 2 rounds of Hearts (and shows out on 3rd), it means that Diamonds are 2-2 and you just need to cash ♦AK to drop the ♦Q, wherever it is.
   In this particular deal, East shows out only on the 4th round of Hearts, meaning he has a singleton Diamond. That is not good news as if West's Diamonds are ♦QTx, the contract cannot be made. You can make the contract only if East has a stiff ♦Q or ♦10. Play the ♦K. When East shows up with the ♦10, play a 2nd Diamond and finesse to the ♦9 to capture West's ♦Q.

Things to remember:

• Counting is very important: You can count tricks, losers, points and distributions. Notice the bidding! East revealed more than half of his cards by bidding 3♠. You only need a little investigation to complete the full layout of his hand.
• Notice South's bid after East's 3♠. He cannot bid 3NT without a spade stopper, he doesn't have 4 Hearts to bid 4♥ but he can Pass, showing just that (no 4 card heart and no stopper in spades), leaving the decision to North.