Goren on Bridge

Both vulnerable, South deals

Today’s deal is from the Norwegian Team Championships earlier this year. The actual auction was slightly different than the simple one given above. We omitted some irrelevant fancy footwork.

South won the opening heart lead with his ace and cashed the ace of spades. The fall of the nine from West was ominous. All would be well if West had another trump but a singleton nine would mean that the contract was in jeopardy. South led the jack of spades to East’s queen and got the bad news. East was Norwegian world champion Glenn Grotheim, who took good care of his potential third trump trick.

Grotheim meticulously avoided returning partner’s suit, leading a club instead. He did not want declarer to be able to shorten his trump length. South won the club with his king and led the 10 of spades to Grotheim’s king. Another club was won with dummy’s ace and a heart was ruffed. Declarer cashed his queen of clubs and eight of spades and led another spade to Grotheim, but Grotheim still had a heart remaining as an exit card. In time, the king of diamonds became the setting trick.

Had Grotheim ever led a heart, South would have ruffed and used the ace of clubs to ruff another heart. In the end game, declarer would have had a choice between endplaying East in spades for a diamond away from the king or endplaying him in diamonds for a lead away from the seven of spades. Nice defense! 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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