Bridge: Look at the second card in the suit

West is defending against four hearts. He leads the diamond nine. East wins with his jack, cashes the diamond ace, and continues with the diamond king. After South ruffs with his heart queen, how should West plan the defense?

When a fit is found, both partners can include shortage points (or follow the guidelines of the Losing Trick Count). When North raises hearts, South can add one point for each doubleton, getting him up to 19 support (high-card plus shortage) points — enough for his jump to game. (Alternatively, his hand has only five losers: one spade, one heart, two diamonds and one club. This is the number for a jump to game opposite a single raise.)

Should West overruff declarer? With king-doubleton, yes; but what about king-third? Now it primarily depends upon the second card in the suit. If it is relatively high — typically at least the eight — the defender should not overruff, in the hope that that card will be promoted as a winner.

In this deal, if West overruffs and, say, shifts to a spade, South wins that trick, draws trumps, and claims. But if West calmly discards, he will eventually take two trump tricks, with K-10-4 sitting behind A-J-8-7-2.

That seems to be easy, but as you know, bridge loves exceptions. We will look at one tomorrow.