On Simple Saturday, we focus on basic technique and logical thinking.

A friend of mine says he knows he has a lot of problems, but he isn’t sure how many because math is one of them. Many contracts fail because declarer omits a simple arithmetical process: counting the defenders’ hands.

At today’s four spades, West cashed the K-Q of diamonds - East followed with the deuce and six - and shifted to the jack of clubs. Dummy’s queen lost to East’s king, and a club came back: eight, ten, ace. Declarer next drew trumps, took the ace of hearts and led a second heart, finessing with dummy’s jack. The jack won, but West’s Q-10 were worth a trick. Down one.

South succeeds if he takes time to dig for a count. After he draws trumps, he ruffs dummy’s last club. When West discards, South knows West had two clubs, three trumps and surely no more than six diamonds (since East followed low-high on the high diamonds).

So South can place West with four hearts. South takes the ace and leads to dummy’s eight.

Daily question: You hold: ? K 9 5 3 ? K J 8 4 ? 8 7 ? A Q 6. The dealer, at your right, opens one diamond. You double, and your partner responds (“advances”) three clubs. What do you say?

Answer: Partner’s jump invites game and suggests about 10 points. He is likely to have a good club suit (that would serve as a source of tricks if you judged to try 3NT). Since your hand is a minimum and an 11-trick club game is far away, pass. Your lack of aces warns against notrump even if partner has a diamond stopper.

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