Bridge

At the bridge table, a goulash deal beats five contracts played in no-trump. What do you think of the auction? How did five hearts doubled fare?

It is rare to open with a one-bid in goulash. West’s Unusual No-trump was weird; since partner rated to have a major two-suiter, just bidding some number of diamonds would have been preferable. East hid in the bushes over three spades. Then South, who was preparing to double five diamonds, was pleasantly surprised to hear partner raise hearts. East finally revealed his major-orientated hand.

If West had led a club, the contract would have failed, but she selected the diamond king. Declarer looked at the diamond void and joked, “Ruff it!”

South took the first trick and played four rounds of hearts. East won, cashed his second heart trick, then tried a sneaky low-spade lead. However, declarer knew that East, who couldn’t have a second diamond, had started with 7-5-1-0 distribution. South discarded a diamond. When he won the trick on the board, he conceded only two trump tricks and claimed for plus 850.