GOREN BRIDGE

Today's deal is from our friend Tim Bourke, from Australia, who has created it for our enjoyment. The auction shown is reasonable. South's three-spade bid set the trump suit and North's four-heart bid was a control showing bid in support of spades. Shortness opposite strength is not an asset, and South wisely stopped in game despite his terrific hand.

South won the opening club lead with his ace and saw that he had an easy 10 tricks as long as the jack of trumps fell in three rounds or less. He cashed the ace of spades at trick two and he could no longer make his contract. He had three sure minor-suit losers plus a trump loser.

South could have made his contract by leading the 10 of spades at trick two rather than the ace. Ducking his jack wouldn't help the defense, so East would win and lead a club. Two club tricks would be all that was available to the defense. On regaining the lead, South could lead a low spade to dummy's seven and discard his low diamond on dummy's ace of hearts to make his contract.

Note that this is not a typical match-points vs. team scoring problem, where overtricks are not important. There were never more than 10 tricks available, barring a singleton jack of spades, so the winning play is just the correct play.