Goren on Bridge

East-West vulnerable, South deals

Consider the North hand in today’s deal. Do you agree with the way North bid it?

Before judging North too harshly, remember that the definitive book about the correct way to bid hands with 7-5 distribution has yet to be written, and we are not holding our breath.

There is almost always an element of guesswork involved when bidding these hands.

Whatever you think about North’s bidding, we hope everyone agrees that West’s final double was based on pure greed rather than bridge logic. What rebid was he hoping North would make after South’s two-club bid? He couldn’t even have dreamed it would be six clubs. He knew that

North had guessed wrong and he should have controlled his excitement and just passed. Defending six clubs could not possibly be a bad result for his side.

North, who knew he was guessing when he bid six clubs, should have listened to West announcing that he had guessed wrong. A more enterprising North might have bid six spades after the double. Note that, albeit a bit lucky, six spades cannot be defeated. North will ruff the ace of hearts opening lead — nothing else is better — cash the king of diamonds, followed by the ace of spades and a spade to South’s jack. The 2-2 spade split would allow him to cash the ace and queen of diamonds. The fall of the jack would give him 12 top tricks.

East’s comment about West’s double would not have been fit to print!

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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