GOREN BRIDGE

Today's deal is from a tournament in Europe some years ago. No North-south pair bid and made six hearts on these cards. Two pairs bid to seven hearts, but neither declarer took all 13 tricks. Barry Jones (no relation), of Wales, gives us the winning solution. Think about it yourself before reading further.

South wins the opening heart lead in hand with the king, leads a club to dummy's ace, and ruffs a diamond. A club to dummy's queen is followed by another diamond ruff. A spade to dummy's ace allows South to ruff another diamond with his remaining heart, the jack. South next ruffs a club with dummy's 10 of hearts, setting up the club suit, and draws trumps with dummy's ace and queen of hearts as he discards two low spades from his hand.

South proudly claims the last three tricks with the king of spades and the king-10 of clubs. Was that so hard?

The problem with deals like this is that declarer will naturally start thinking about ruffing losers in dummy rather than ruffing losers in his hand. Both approaches are equally effective and timing the play is the most important thing.