Goren on Bridge

The South hand is barely worth the two-heart reverse bid, but the hand improved when partner supported clubs. Five clubs is not a very good contract, but it has chances.

South won the opening diamond lead with his ace and took stock. He needed a 2-1 trump split, as a 3-0 split, either way, would assure the defense of two trump winners. It also looked like he had a heart and a diamond to lose, but the diamond loser might go away if the spade finesse was successful. South started by cashing the ace of clubs, relieved that both opponents followed suit. He then led the jack of spades and overtook it with dummy’s queen, hoping to discard his diamond loser on the ace of spades. No luck, as East won with the king of spades and cashed a diamond. The king of trumps was the setting trick. The queen of hearts falling doubleton held the loss to down one.

Could declarer have done better? Yes! South was in too much of a rush to take the spade finesse. Instead, he should have cashed the ace and king of hearts first. This couldn’t have cost him anything and the lucky fall of the queen would make the risky spade finesse unnecessary. He would have romped home with his contract. Note that a contract of three no-trump would have had no chance on a diamond lead. 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. Email responses may be sent to tcaeditors@tribune.com.

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