Goren on Bridge

South inserted dummy’s jack on the opening heart lead, winning the trick. There was one certain club loser, so the contract depended on holding the spade suit to one loser. Technicians would tell you that the optimal play in the spade suit is to first lead low from dummy to declarer’s eight in case East started with jack-10-small, and if that failed to force out the king, lead a spade to the queen later. This sequence of plays, however optimal it might be, would not work in this deal. South in today’s deal found a way to bring home his contract on any lie of the spade suit.

South led a diamond to his ace at trick two and then a diamond back to the queen. He led a low heart to his king and crossed back to dummy with a diamond to the jack. He cashed the ace of hearts and made the key play of discarding a low club from his hand rather than a low spade. This seemed unusual because the low club was not a loser — it could have been ruffed later in dummy — but then neither was his low spade a loser.

South ruffed a heart in hand to eliminate that suit and then exited with his remaining club. East won with his queen and had to lead a spade or yield a ruff-sluff. South ducked the spade shift to West’s jack, and West had to surrender. Nicely played!

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