Goren on Bridge

East-West vulnerable, South deals

A2 AQ10 AKQ4 Q763

KQJ10974 3 J976

5

53 KJ986 83 AK92

1♥ 3♠ 5♦ Pass 6♣ Pass

Opening lead: King of 4NT 5NT 7♥

Pass Pass All pass

South’s six-club bid showed specifically the king of clubs — a Blackwood variation that has grown in popularity over the years. This encouraged North to gamble out a grand slam.

Thirteen tricks would be easy provided the missing clubs split 3-2, but the likelihood of bad spits increases whenever there is a pre-empt in the auction. South, aware of this, played the hand very carefully. He won the opening spade lead with dummy’s ace and cashed the ace and queen of hearts, noting the 4-1 split. South cashed the ace and king of diamonds and was at the crossroads. East presumably started with two spades to go with four hearts and at least two diamonds. The hand would not be manageable if East started with all five missing clubs, so South cashed the queen of diamonds to discard his remaining spade.

South now tried for a perfect count on the hand, He ruffed dummy’s last diamond with the jack of hearts as East discarded a spade. Perfect! South led a club to the queen and led another club. Had East split his honors, South would have won and returned to dummy with the 10 of hearts to take another club finesse. When East played low, South inserted his nine of clubs and claimed shortly after that. Well done!

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