Goren on Bridge

The auction in today’s deal is unknown to us, so we created the plausible auction above. South was Nevena Senior, who started out representing Bulgaria in international competitions three decades ago. She moved to England at about the turn of the century and has been a mainstay on the English women’s team ever since.

Senior won the opening heart lead in dummy perforce, and crossed to her hand with the king of diamonds. She led a low club to the eight, king, and ace. East led a trump, which Senior won in her hand with the queen and cashed the jack of diamonds to complete drawing trumps. She led her nine of clubs and stopped to think when West played the five.

West had played high-low in clubs, usually showing an even number of cards in the suit. Had West started with four clubs to the jack, the winning play would be to run the nine of clubs. Four low clubs in the West hand and playing the queen would win. Perhaps, against a slam, West was false-carding in clubs and the clubs were splitting 3-3. The fall of the eight of clubs, combined with South’s nine, had made a sequence out of dummy’s ten-seven. Senior showed her card-reading skills by rising with dummy’s queen and leading the 10. She held her breath and discarded a spade when East played low.

This was the winning play and Senior had her slam. Well done!