Goren on Bridge

The 10 of hearts in dummy provided South with a second heart stopper, so he played low from dummy, captured East’s jack with his ace and led the jack of spades. East won this with his king and returned the eight of hearts. West won with his queen, cashed the king, and led another heart to declarer’s nine. This established his long heart. Declarer led another spade. West won with his ace and cashed his established heart for the setting trick. What went wrong?

Declarer lost sight of the fact that, despite having a second heart stopper, he did not need two heart tricks. He should have played low from his hand and allowed East to win with the jack of hearts at trick one. On the eight of hearts return, South should follow with the nine, trying to mislead West about the heart position. Even if West sees through this ruse and shifts to a diamond — a club is no better — South can win with his ace and lead the jack of spades. East will win with the king and, with no heart to play, return a diamond or a club. South wins either and leads his remaining spade, knocking out the ace and setting up dummy’s spades.

South ends up with three spades, one heart, three diamonds, and two clubs. Making three! 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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