Goren on Bridge

South’s moderately aggressive rebid sent North off to the races and North-South ended up in a marginal slam. A diamond lead might have defeated the slam, as it would have required clairvoyant play from South to set up the needed trump coup.

The opening spade lead went to declarer’s nine. A heart to dummy’s queen was followed by three top clubs. East ruffed the third club and was over-ruffed by South. South drew trumps and led the king of diamonds from his hand, trying to force an entry to dummy. East held off with his ace, so South ran off the rest of his trumps, coming down to a three-card ending. East was unable to keep two spades and two diamonds, so he bared his ace of diamonds. South promptly threw him in with that card to force a lead away from East’s king of spades. Declarer inserted his jack and brought home his slam. Nicely played!

Note that East could have defeated the slam with an unusual defense. East had to refuse to ruff a club and allow South to discard all three of his diamonds. The best South could then do would be to play a spade to his jack. West would ruff and East couldn’t be prevented from taking the setting trick with his jack of trumps. Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001. E-mail responses may be sent to tcaeditors@tribune.com.

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