Bridge

Declarer South: game all

South’s opening bid promised a weak two-suiter and West found himself with a bidding problem at his second turn. 3NT was one possibility, but after some thought raised simply to game. South led the ♠J and German star Sabine Van Auken won in hand and took a club finesse. Now she could discard one of her losing diamonds, but the timing was wrong for the spade ruff that would have given her 12 tricks. She cashed the ♠K, but when she came back to hand via a club ruff North was able to discard a spade and could now overruff the dummy. Mistiming is a major problem – when you are in a semi or full crossruff situation cash winners before defenders can discard and ruff them out.