Goren on Bridge

North-South did well to avoid three notrump, which would have had no chance after a heart lead. South’s reluctance to bid three no-trump with just one heart stopper led to this excellent contract in a 4-3 fit.

The opening heart lead went to East’s jack and South saw that he could win the ace of hearts, ruff a heart, and draw trumps. This would work well if the trumps split 3-3, but what if West had four trumps and a doubleton diamond? South couldn’t draw all the trumps before knocking out the ace of diamonds or they would run the whole heart suit on him.

South could probably succeed by drawing exactly three rounds of trumps and then leading diamonds, but he found an elegant solution by allowing East’s jack of hearts to hold the first trick. East shifted to a trump, but South won this in hand with the 10 and ruffed his little heart with dummy’s queen of spades. He overtook the king of spades with the ace and drew all of the trumps, discarding two clubs from the table. This left him with no-trumps but that was OK because he still held the ace of hearts.

He led a diamond, and East was forced to win and exit with a diamond to prevent an overtrick. 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. Email responses may be sent to tcaeditors@tribune.com. © 2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.