Goren on Bridge

One of the most notable people in the world of bridge today is Norway’s Boye Brogeland. He has made many contributions to the game, but he first caught our attention as an expert player. He was South, in today’s deal.

West continued with another heart at trick two, ruffed by Brogeland. The missing diamond suit posed a riddle. On inquiry, Brogeland learned that East would have opened one diamond if he held five of them, so it looked like West was 5-5 in the red suits. West might have led, or shifted to, a singleton club if he had one, so Brogeland decided to play West for an original distribution of 1-5-5-2. Brogeland exited with a diamond, which West won with his queen to lead a third heart. Brogeland ruffed and led his last diamond.

West ducked the second diamond and East won with his ace. East had no hearts at this point and he couldn’t lead a black suit safely, so he led another diamond, giving Brogeland a ruff-sluff. Good idea, as Brogeland had no loser to sluff, but it gave him a chance to untangle his entry problems. Brogeland discarded the 10 of clubs from his hand, ruffed in dummy, and led the jack of spades to the king and ace. He now led the jack of clubs and overtook it with dummy’s king. He successfully ran the nine of clubs, resolving the club problem and then led a spade to his nine. A wonderfully played hand! 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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