Goren Bridge

You might think that North could have tried three notrump instead of three hearts with his completely balanced hand. Note that nine tricks in no-trump are impossible for North-South on a diamond lead. 10 tricks in hearts came home, with careful play and good timing, despite the 5-0 split in trumps.

Declarer won the opening diamond led with dummy’s ace and stopped to make a plan. The auction warned of a possible poor split in hearts, so South led the eight of hearts at trick two.

He was prepared to run this and lose to a singleton honor in the West hand. East, however, covered with the 10 and South’s queen won the trick as West shed a diamond.

The spades were sure to be splitting 4-3 and the ace of clubs was sure to be with West from the bidding. There were just enough entries to dummy for South to score five heart winners. He led a low club to dummy’s king as West ducked his ace. Rising with the ace would not have helped the defense.

Declarer ruffed a diamond in hand and led a spade to dummy’s jack for another diamond ruff. South cashed the ace of spades and led the queen of spades to dummy’s king. Dummy’s last diamond was led, which East ruffed with the jack of hearts. South discarded a club on this trick and couldn’t be prevented from scoring both his ace and nine of hearts no matter how the defense continued. Well played!