Goren on Bridge

Both vulnerable, West deals

Declarer has no obligation to play honest cards and tell the opponents about his hand, so he should routinely play random cards. He usually cannot predict the effect this will have, but it might help.

South ducked the opening heart lead to East’s king and East returned the three of hearts, consistent with East’s current count in the suit. South followed to the first two tricks with the five and the six, hiding the two. The location of the queen

of diamonds was almost certain from the auction, so declarer crossed to his hand with the ace of clubs and ran the 10 of diamonds, which held. He led a diamond to dummy’s ace, led a club to his king, and then cashed the queen of clubs playing the 10 from dummy. This was the position: South led the six of clubs and West could not defend the position. Any discard was fatal. West chose to discard a spade, but South exited with a spade and West eventually had to lead a diamond into declarer’s K-J to give South nine tricks. West could have defeated the contract by playing a heart honor under the ace at trick two, but South hiding his deuce made East’s plays in hearts consistent with an original holding of K-3-2. How could West know at trick two? 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.

© 2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.