Goren on Bridge

South correctly evaluated his hand as worth 9-10 points when he jumped to two spades. North’s raise to game was routine.

West continued with the king of hearts at trick two and, with nothing better to do, led a third heart to dummy’s queen. South noted that East followed to all three hearts. Trumps were drawn in three rounds and, again, East followed to all three. Three rounds of clubs saw West show out on the third round. West had promised five hearts for his opening bid, so East’s original distribution was known to be 3-3-1-6. How could South use this information?

West had to have the king of diamonds for his opening bid, so playing the ace and then another diamond couldn’t possibly work. South led a low diamond from the dummy, instead, and allowed East’s 10 to potentially hold the trick. Perfect! Should East, in fact, win this trick, he would be forced to yield a ruff-sluff. Declarer could discard a diamond from dummy while ruffing in his hand. Should West overtake the 10 of diamonds to prevent this, then West would be end-played. He would have a choice between giving a ruff-sluff or leading a diamond away from his king. Either way, South had his contract. Nicely played!

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