Goren on Bridge

Today’s deal is from a team match some years ago between a team from Israel and a team from the Netherlands. Both tables reached three no-trump after West showed a distributional hand. At this table, for some reason, West chose to show a side diamond suit rather than rebidding his hearts — a diamond suit that he really didn’t have.

Both West players led an unfortunate heart, with dummy’s jack winning the trick. At this table, where South had reason to suspect a club void and that he might need an extra trick,

South led a spade to his queen at trick two. The ace of clubs revealed the bad news and South continued with three rounds of clubs to East’s jack. West discarded two spades and two hearts, so the Israeli East had no trouble shifting to West’s other “suit”. A diamond to the king, followed by the jack of diamonds, defeated the contract.

At the other table, for some reason, West did not show his side “suit”. South did not take the spade finesse at trick two, hoping that he already had nine tricks. The club split was a disappointment, but declarer continued with three rounds of clubs to East. Things were not as clear to the Dutch East player at this table and he shifted to a spade. South inserted his queen and claimed his contract when that held.

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