Goren on Bridge

Both vulnerable, South deals

The Forcing One no-trump response to a major-suit opening has become standard with today’s tournament players. One of the advantages is that responder can tell opener whether his invitational raise is based on three-card or fourcard support. In today’s auction, North’s delayed raise showed specifically three-card spade support.

East played the queen of hearts under his partner’s ace at trick one, promising that he held the jack. West continued with a low heart to East’s 10, ruffed by South. The contract would be easy if both spades and diamonds split 3-2, but that was against the odds. South took a line of play that only needed for diamonds to split 3-2. He led a club to dummy’s king and East’s ace. East continued with another heart, ruffed by South.

Declarer cashed the ace and king of diamonds, followed by the queen of clubs, before exiting dummy with a third diamond. West won with his queen and shifted to a low trump. South played low in dummy and won with the jack in his hand. Declarer now had a high crossruff for the last four tricks.

Note that had the defenders not kept forcing South to ruff, declarer could have played on similar lines and eventually drawn the trumps before cashing his long diamonds. 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.

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