Goren on Bridge

West was “walking the dog” when he passed at his first turn. He was feigning weakness, planning to back into the auction later. Hopefully, he would look like a fool about to lose a lot of money. Nice plan for another day, but he was outgunned on this deal. An immediate four-spade bid might have worked better, but we think North would have bid slam anyway.

West started with the ace and another spade. South, who had smelled this rat before, ruffed with dummy’s ace of hearts. The king of hearts revealed the bad split, but South drew the trumps easily with the help of a finesse for East’s 10. South played dummy’s ace and king of diamonds and ruffed a diamond, leaving this position:

South cashed his last heart, discarding a low club from dummy. East could not defend the position. A diamond discard and dummy’s seven would be high, so East parted with a club. The ace, king, and seven of clubs took the last three tricks. Nicely done!

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.

© 2022 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.