Goren on Bridge

South had enough to accept the invitation, so it is not clear why he bid three clubs. Some people just love to bid. East won the opening lead with the queen of diamonds, cashed the ace of diamonds, and continued with the king, ruffed by declarer with the 10. The ace, queen, and nine of spades drew the outstanding trumps, and the queen of clubs lost to East’s ace. East exited with a club to dummy’s jack and South paused for a moment to consider the rest of the play.

East could not have a balanced hand with the queen of hearts. That would give him 15 points and he would have opened one no-trump. South knew that it was pointless to cash the ace of hearts and lead low to his jack. That play couldn’t work. Instead, he led a low heart to his king, hoping to see a singleton queen or 10 from East. When East followed with the three, South’s only hope was that East started with the 10-3 doubleton. Declarer led the jack of hearts from his hand and ran it when West played low. This pinned East’s 10 and gave South his contract. Well done!

Better defense by East would be to win the opening lead with his king of diamonds, cash the ace, and shift to a trump. South might still get the information that he needed, but he would have to work much harder to get it. 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.