Goren on Bridge

East-West were using a convention that has a serious following on other shores, but is seldom seen in the USA. West had no idea as to which of East’s major suits was longer or stronger, so he corrected to his own better major.

The opening heart lead was ducked in dummy and East won with the king. A heart continuation did not appeal to East, as the suit would be blocked after knocking out dummy’s ace. The best possible heart holding for West was three to the queen, and that wouldn’t be good enough to use the suit because East had no further entry.

It appeared that West had three hearts, which must mean that he held three spades that were stronger or he wouldn’t have bid two spades in the auction. East shifted to a low spade at trick two and declarer played low from his hand. Would West rise to the occasion? Yes! He brilliantly inserted his 10 of spades, losing to dummy’s jack. South needed a diamond trick to make his contract, so he crossed to his hand with a club and led the sneaky queen of diamonds. West grabbed his ace and continued with the ace of spades, felling South’s king, and led the four of spades through dummy’s remaining nine-six. East took two spade tricks to defeat the contract.

South did nothing unreasonable in the auction, and we expect that the same contract would have been reached with no bidding by East-West. The defense, however, would probably not have been as accurate.