Goren on Bridge

Today’s deal is from a recent tournament in India, where there is a large and talented bridge community. South was Sandip Karmarkar. A three-diamond contract by East-West could not have been defeated, and Karmarkar’s three-spade bid was sound. In competition, this rebid did not

promise the values that would be needed for a jump rebid, and North should probably have given him some room and passed three spades. North loved his two aces, however, so he carried on and hoped for the best. Perhaps it was a vote of confidence in his partner’s declarer play.

Declarer won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and led a spade to his 10. When that lost to the ace, rather than the jack, there was some hope. South ruffed the diamond continuation and drew trumps in two more rounds. He led the jack of clubs and had a key decision to make when West covered with the queen. Should he play West for the king of clubs or East for the king of hearts?

Karmarkar reasoned that East, who was obviously short in hearts, was not likely to have the king of that suit, so he played low from dummy and allowed West’s queen of clubs to hold the trick. West exited with his last diamond, which South ruffed and then led a club to dummy’s 10. When that held the trick, he had the second club trick that he needed and he claimed 10 tricks. He then thanked his partner for raising him to game.

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