Goren on Bridge

Today’s deal is from the World Championships — the Bermuda Bowl — held in Italy last month. Many tables got to five clubs via different auctions. The 4-0 trump split caused problems. Declarer could win the spade lead, cash the king of clubs, and then cash two high hearts and lead another heart. He could ruff the spade continuation in hand and ruff a heart in dummy, but what about his diamond loser? If he gave up a diamond before drawing trumps, he would lose a diamond ruff. If he drew trumps first, he would lose a diamond and a spade, since he would be out of trumps.

The great Italian player — Lorenzo Lauria — led the king of clubs at trick two and then led the

deceptive jack of diamonds from his hand. West gave this the fisheye but played low! Lauria then made the hand, as described above, with no further trouble.

There is a legitimate line of play to make the contract. South wins the ace of spades, cashes a

high club, and plays three rounds of hearts to East’s queen. East must play a spade or there is no problem. When East does lead a spade, South

can elegantly discard the jack of diamonds rather than ruffing. West, known to be down to only spades and diamonds, will have to lead a diamond into the ace-queen or yield a ruff-sluff. South can make the contract either way! The ruff-sluff will still challenge declarer, but he can do it. Interested readers can work out the play.

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