Bridge

As Eddie Kantar says in his new book, “Kantar on Kontract,” if you want to be an expert defender, you must keep counting all of the time. East made a play on this deal that most players wouldn’t make if they lived to be a thousand, because he could count.

West led his singleton heart against four spades, and East’s queen lost to the ace. West hopped up with the diamond ace at trick two and shifted to a low club. South took dummy’s club ace and diamond king, shedding a club, then advanced a heart from dummy.

At this point East’s automatic play is to rise with the heart king. However, that would let South score up his game contract, losing only one more trick (to the trump ace).

But if East ducks the heart, West ruffs and gets out with a trump, letting East win and return a trump. South can ruff only one heart in dummy now, and the heart king will be the setting trick.

How does East know to duck the second round of hearts? Well, South appears to have started with one diamond and two clubs. If South had more than two clubs, he would surely have finessed the club jack.

Moreover, the opening lead of the heart two suggests that, as West never supported hearts, the lead must be a singleton. If so, let partner ruff the heart and get out with a trump.

There is no way of being an expert without counting every hand.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Bid two no-trump to show the minors. (Yes, that is what it shows, even though your LHO opened one club.) If you had the unbid suits, you would have doubled on the previous round or at this turn to speak, so the unusual no-trump should show the minors now. After all, West could easily still have only three clubs, could he not?