Goren on Bridge

The club’s Saturday night duplicate had just started when Hard Luck Louie played this deal. He ruffed the heart continuation at trick two and decided that this contract would be an easy one. He had eight tricks on top and only needed two diamond ruffs in dummy to get to 10 tricks. He banged down the ace of diamonds at trick three and was crestfallen when West ruffed and led a trump. When East won the next diamond and continued trumps, Louie drifted down two. “Darn the luck!” said Louie. “I was cold if everyone followed to the ace of diamonds”.

Lucky Larry played the same contract after the same auction. After ruffing the second heart, he took a moment to decide why West had doubled with no aces. There was a good chance, thought Larry, of running into some unpleasant distribution. Larry led a low diamond from his hand at trick three. East won with the nine and continued with the king, but Larry played low and allowed the king to win. Larry could not be prevented from ruffing two diamonds in dummy and bringing home his doubled contract.

He didn’t even have to do that, as he knew that West held all the missing hearts and East all the missing diamonds. He could simply ruff one diamond and run all of his spades. There would be the simplest of double squeezes available and we leave it to interested readers to follow up on that possibility. Well done!