Goren Bridge

South forced to game with his powerful hand, but he didn’t catch a very good dummy. Most of dummy’s values were opposite his void, but the queen of hearts was worth a trick for him. That would get him up to nine tricks. Could he find a tenth?

South won the opening trump lead in hand with the ace. He saw that he could make his contract if West held the king of hearts. He could simply draw trumps and lead a low heart toward the queen, gaining an entry to the ace of diamonds. That was only a 50% chance, however, and South wanted something better than that. Can you spot the winning play?

South found a way to greatly improve his chances. At trick two, he led the jack of hearts from his hand. Should either opponent win this with the king, the queen of hearts would be an entry for the ace of diamonds.

Should the opponent with the king duck this trick, declarer would have an overtrick on this lie of the cards. He would cash the ace of hearts and ruff a heart, and then discard a loser on the ace of diamonds. This line of play would succeed whenever the missing hearts divided 4-3 — the percentage split, plus the slight extra chance the person with a doubleton heart also had no more trumps.

It would also work when West started with doubletons in both majors. West could prevent the first heart ruff but not the second. Nice play!