Counting Fingers

South Deals None Vul	♠ A K 9 8 ♥ K 5 4 ♦ A 10 8 7 ♣ 5 2
♠ 7 5 2 ♥ 8 7 3 ♦ 9 5 3 ♣ K J 9 7	N W E S

East	South	You	North
			1 ♦
Pass	1 ♥	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	2 NT1	Pass	3 NT
All pass

11-12 HCP

Sitting West, you led the ♣ 7 against an apparently normal 3 NT contract. Good news! Partner played the ♣ A and declarer the ♣ 4.

On partner's ♣ 8 return, declarer played the ♣ 10 and you of course won the trick with the jack. Now what? With no other entries to your hand, is it time to cash your club winners?

ANSWER: How many fingers is partner holding up? She'd better not be holding up any; that would be cheating. But her ♣ 8 did say that she started with only two or three clubs, and it also denied the ♣ Q. So declarer must have the queen and at least one more club. You have the king-nine over declarer's queen-small; don't continue clubs and give declarer a trick!

THE PRINCIPLE: When partner returns your led suit against a notrump contract, she will lead her highest remaining card in the suit unless she started with four or more. In that case she would lead her original fourth-best. Use that information to figure out what declarer's holding is likely to be.

Considering the clubs we haven't seen yet, what was partner's original holding?

• if partner had ♣ A 8 6 3, she would have returned the three (original fourth-best)
• if she had ♣ A 8 6 or ♣ A 8 3, she would return the eight (highest remaining)
• if she had ♣ A Q 8, she would have returned the queen (highest remaining)
• if she had ♣ A Q 8 6 or ♣ A Q 8 3, she would have returned the six or three (fourth-best)
• if she had ♣ A 8, she returns the eight of course.

So it is pretty clear that partner doesn't have the ♣ Q. You can't tell whether she started with two or three clubs. If partner does regain the lead, partner might have another club to lead for down one. If partner doesn't regain the lead or doesn't have a third club, it is still likely that declarer will have to give you a club trick or two later in the play.

BONUS MINUTE: If not a third round of clubs, then what should you lead? Note that partner originally had 10-11 HCP, based on South's 2 NT call and the rest of the points you can see. So partner still has some strength somewhere. You'd rather not give declarer a free finesse, so leading to dummy's strength seems safest. Declarer denied holding four spades, so a spade it should be.

	♠ A K 9 8 ♥ K 5 4 ♦ A 10 8 7 ♣ 5 2
♠ 7 5 2 ♥ 8 7 3 ♦ 9 5 3 ♣ K J 9 7	N W E S	♠ Q J 10 4 ♥ Q J 10 ♦ J 6 4 ♣ A 8 3
	♠ 6 3 ♥ A 9 6 2 ♦ K Q 2 ♣ Q 10 6 4

Declarer cannot make nine tricks unless you play a third round of clubs.

-- Ray
Better Bridge in 5 Minutes. Guaranteed! (or the next one is free)