March 2024 - 31

Method Bridge
The right way to count - part 3
By Matt Granovetter
I
f you have done your homework
and memorized our top five
shapes, you will easily spot the
shape when you look at your hand or
dummy. It's more difficult to imagine
the shape of a suit around the table,
but that's often the method to success.
Have you ever tried it?
North (Dummy)
s 9 8 6 5
h K Q J 6 3
d 5 2
c A K
West (You)
s A 4
h 7 5 2
d A K 10 3
c 9 8 4 3
North opens 2d, Alerted as the
Flannery convention, showing an
opening bid with four spades and five
hearts. Partner passes and South
jumps to 3s, invitational to game,
which North passes. You lead the dA.
Partner and South both follow low.
Your primary goal is five tricks, and
you see three. Partner has only a few
points. Can you think of a way to defeat
3s using your memory of shapes?
One strategy comes to my mind:
the fourth-round ruff. If diamonds
are 4-4-3-2 around the table (our
most frequent shape), and partner
s A 4
h 7 5 2
d A K 10 3
c 9 8 4 3
s K Q J 7
h 8
d Q 9 7 4
c Q J 7 5
In this case, you don't know how
many diamonds partner holds at the
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March 2024 | Bridge Bulletin |
31
holds three of them, you may be able
to give partner a ruff in diamonds
on the fourth round. So you continue
with the dK, all following low. Then
you lead another diamond. Declarer
ruffs in dummy with the s9, partner
follows with the jack, and South the
9. The only diamond missing now is
the queen (and South has it, because
partner would have played it at trick
one from Q-J).
Declarer leads a low spade from
dummy to the 3, king, and your ace.
And you lead your last diamond,
ruffed with the s8 and overruffed
with the 10. This is so satisfying!
Partner holds the hA, and the contract
is down one.
All 52 cards:
s 9 8 6 5
h K Q J 6 3
d 5 2
c A K
s 10 3 2
h A 10 9 4
d J 8 6
c 10 6 2
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start of the hand, but you rely on your
memory-recall of (1) the common
shape 4-4-3-2, and (2) the strategy
of the fourth-round ruff. The secret
is to have the strategy in mind before
you get to the table. You then remember
it when you see the position.
Homework
Start making a list of " shape strategies "
for the future. In this series, we
have seen: (1) On lead against a suit
contract, consider the chance that
partner holds a singleton; (2) When
you are declarer with a five-card side
suit facing a singleton, try ruffing out
the suit, hoping it is 5-4-3-1 around
the table; (3) On defense, when dummy's
trumps are weak, consider a
fourth-round ruff.
If you played a hand where you used
your memory of shapes for success,
please share it with me at
methodbridge4432@gmail.com.
March 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2024
