From                  7th February, 2007, Board 5

                                          Theme               Counting Points

                                          Difficulty           *  *

                                          Dlr South           N-S Vul             Hands Rotated

                                                                                               for Convenience

West leads the Q♥, followed by a low Heart to East’s King.  Now East cashes the A♥, then the A♦, and next a Diamond to West’s King.  West gets out with a low Club, you play the Ten, and East’s King loses to your Ace.  The question is simple enough … how do you play the trump suit?

SOLUTION

This is one of those hands where, if you present it as a problem everybody gets it right.  But, when it is encountered in actual play, many players will miss the signs and think “Eight ever, nine never”, and will blithely play the A♠ and K♠, playing for the drop of the Queen.

A little bit of counting is all that is needed to take the trump finesse with assurance.  East has opened 1NT, showing 15-17.  Declarer and Dummy have a combined 18 HCP’s, that leaves West with 5-7 HCP’s.  So far, West has shown up 6 points, via the Q♥, the J♥, and the K♦.  That leaves West with no room for the Q♠, so the finesse is virtually guaranteed.  But not a complete certainty, we’ve all been known to open 1NT with a “good 14”.

	♠ K753 ♥ 842 ♦ Q5 ♣ QT84
♠ 4 ♥ QJT5 ♦ KT863 ♣ 952	North    West          East            South	♠ QT6 ♥ AK7 ♦ A974 ♣ K63
	♠ AJ982 ♥ 963 ♦ J2 ♣ AJ7

Keys to Success

   - Remembering that East opened a 15-17 1NT, so West must have 5-7

   - Counting up West's points and playing the Spades accordingly

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