Goren on Bridge

North was aggressive when he bid the grand slam, but not overly so. Had either one of South’s red queens been the queen of clubs instead, the grand would have been excellent.

South won the opening trump lead with his jack and drew the remaining trump by leading a low spade to dummy’s ace. The ace of diamonds was cashed, followed by the ace and king of clubs. South discarded his nine and queen of hearts on the high clubs. He ruffed a club, which confirmed that West’s original distribution had been 1-5-5-2.

South could not be defeated at this point as long as West held the king of diamonds. Declarer led the queen of diamonds, covered by the king, and ruffed in the dummy. He crossed back to his hand with the ace of hearts and led the nine of diamonds. This was covered with the 10 and ruffed in dummy. A heart ruff allowed South to lead the eight of diamonds, covered with the jack and ruffed with dummy’s last trump. A club ruff back to his hand left South with the established seven of diamonds for his thirteenth trick.

Once again we see a two-suited bid backfire when it fails to find a fit. The help it gave to declarer on this deal was devastating. Perhaps these bids are over-rated? We’ll be on the lookout for deals that show these bids in a better light. Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001. E-mail responses may be sent to tcaeditors@tribune.com. © 2018 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.