GOREN BRIDGE

Neither vulnerable, South deals

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST 1♣ Pass 1♦ Pass 1♥ 2♣ 4 Pass 4NT Pass 5♥ ** Pass 6♥ All pass

*4-card heart support, shortness in clubs

**2 key cards, among the four aces and the king of hearts

Opening lead: Nine of ♠

PLAY OR DEFEND?

Consider today’s deal and decide. Would you like to play or defend?

South got a little too excited by North’s splinter bid and blasted into a slam that needed, at the very least, a successful spade finesse. The opening lead made it a virtual certainty that the king of spades was well placed. East withheld his king and dummy’s queen won the first trick. South cashed two high trumps and started on diamonds. The slam would roll home if the diamonds split no worse than 4-2. West, however, discarded a club on the second diamond. South was fortunate that West couldn’t ruff the diamond.

Declarer now led dummy’s club to the three, eight, and nine. West reverted to spades with dummy’s jack winning the trick. South could now cash a third spade trick, a third diamond trick, and cross-ruff the last four tricks to get his total to 12. Have you decided yet?

The defense could have prevailed against this line of play. East should have risen with his king of clubs and led his last trump, leaving declarer with no chance. Don’t choose to defend because of that, as South could have prevented that defense by leading a club at trick two, when a trump by the defense wouldn’t hurt him. Still, the defense could have come out on top. We’ll leave it to interested readers to figure it out. Have fun!