Goren on Bridge

South won the opening diamond lead in his hand with the ace and led a low trump.

West rose with his ace and continued with a second trump to East’s king.

East continued with the 10 of trumps to the board’s jack. The defense had prevented any possible club ruff and there was no obvious tenth trick for declarer.

South was hoping for a 4-3 split of the EastWest spades. He led a spade to his ace, crossed back to dummy with the king of diamonds, cashed the king of spades and ruffed a spade. Bad news and good news. The spades were not splitting well, but West’s exact distribution was known. West had started with five spades, two hearts, and one diamond — therefore five clubs. South reasoned that West held the ace of clubs, or he would have led a club after winning the ace of hearts in an effort to get a diamond ruff.

South put this information to good use. West had already discarded two of his clubs on the third trump and on the second diamond. He had to shed the 10 of clubs on South’s last trump as dummy parted with the six of diamonds. A diamond to dummy’s queen finished West. West had to keep all of his spades, so he discarded the queen of clubs. South now led a club to his king. This lost to West’s ace, but West had to lead a spade and dummy’s queen-10 took the last two tricks. Well played!

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