[inquiry]

An attempt at a GREEN PROBLEM (Kenberg's color scheme idea), By this I mean easiest possible, although it contains a number of visualization issues for novices and beginners and discusses some carding agreements and shows how these agreements might be used (they really are not needed).

Your opponents quickly bid to 7NT. South's 1NT was a balanced 15 to 17 HCP, 2♣ was stayman which asked opener to bid a four or five card major, 2♦ denied a long major, 4♣ was ace asking gerber, 4♠ showed two aces. You can click on the bids to see these bids (other than 1NT these would not be alerted in a real game).

Your partner leads the jack of hearts. Below are some simple questions with hidden answers. Then we will get to the final question.

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How many hearts does your partner hold?

Spoiler

Declarer will have at most 3♥ (and 3♠ for that matter) and at least two hearts. So partner will have five hearts if declarer has three hearts, and six hearts if declarer has a doubleton heart.

How many total HCP can your partner hold on this hand?

Spoiler

This is thing many players often overlook. Sometimes you can get a good view of what HCP's partner can have. Here you have 6 HCP, dummy has 18 HCP, that is 24, and declarer who promised 15 to 17 HCP. Partner lead the ♥J so we have seen 25 HCP between partners lead, dummy, and out hand That only leaves 15 unseen HCP of the 40 HCP in the deck. All of them "must be" in South's hand. So the heart JACK is the only HCP in partner's hand

You can click the NEXT button to see the first multiple tricks. Trick one, South wins the ♥King in his hand. He leads a heart to trick two, and partner pops up with the heart TEN as dummy wins. You discard one of your clubs. Only you can keep declarer's club JACK from becoming a winner, so you discard a high club using standard carding to let partner know you have clubs "stopped".

Declarer plays a spade to his ACE, partner plays the ♠4 standard count. Who has the spade King? How many spades does declarer hold?

Spoiler

Declarer has the ♠King as partner is out of face cards. Partner's spade spot tells us declarer has 3♠. Why? Partner has shown an odd number, which has to be three. IF partner had five, declarer would have a singleton spade, which he can't have, and if partner had one spade, declarer would have five spades and would not have bid 2♦ over stayman

Declarer leads a third round of hearts, partner pops up with the ♥9, dummy wins and you discarded a low ♣. Partner got off to what turns out to be a sad opening lead from ♥JT9xx. Normally that is a fairly safe lead.

Declarer continues with the last heart from dummy, what do you discard? A spade? A club? A diamond? Why?

[billw55]

I like working fairly basic problems. Staying sharp on these is worth at least as much as, and probably more than, mastering expert level plays.

Spoiler

Discard a spade. Declarer has only ♠Kx in hand and ♠Qx in dummy, so there is nothing to guard against in that suit. He is also out of hearts, so I can just follow suit the rest of the way and will get a minor suit trick eventually.