This week’s deals have treated the vital skill of counting by declarer to help him place the cards. To get some practice, cover the East-West cards.

When you open 1NT as South, North raises to 6NT, perhaps afraid he might be missing a grand slam. As it happens, even 6NT is no lock. West leads the jack of clubs. How do you approach the play?

Say you take the ace of clubs, lead a diamond to dummy’s ace and return a low diamond. If East has the queen, you win three diamond tricks and 12 in all. But West captures your jack and leads another club, and when you win and take the king of diamonds, East discards a heart.

Delaying the spades, you cash a third club — East throws another heart. When you take three hearts, West follows twice and discards a club.

Crunch time. How do you play the spades?

It’s easy if you count. West had five clubs, four diamonds, two hearts — and 13 cards. Take the K-Q of spades. When East-West play low, lead a spade to your ten.

Daily question: You hold: ? J 9 6 2 ? J 7 5 3 2 ? 8 6 ? 7 4. Neither side vulnerable. Your partner deals and opens one heart, and the next player doubles. What do you say?

Answer: The deal may belong to the opponents, so you should want to make it hard for them to bid accurately. Get in their way with a jump to three hearts. Over the double, a jump-raise is weak and preemptive. If you held a more distributional hand such as J962,K7532,6,742, you could bid four hearts.

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