Goren on Bridge

East’s routine pre-emptive opening forced South into making a slight overbid that most would agree with.

He caught a suitable dummy, with four trumps, an ace, and a king, but it looked like he had a loser in every suit unless East had an unlikely king of hearts.

South won the opening spade lead with dummy’s ace and led a low heart to his queen and West’s king. West shifted to the queen of clubs and South found a creative line of play. He won the club shift with dummy’s king as East played the 10, and led an innocent looking low diamond. East made a tiny slip when he followed with the two. South played the six, losing the trick to West. West continued with a club to East’s nine and declarer’s ace. South cashed the ace of hearts and the ace of diamonds before leading a heart to dummy’s nine.

South ruffed dummy’s last diamond and exited with a club to West. West had only minor-suit cards remaining and had to lead one of them, yielding a ruff-sluff. South discarded the last spade in his hand while ruffing in dummy and claimed the balance.

East could have defeated the contract by playing a diamond honor on the first round of the suit, but his is an easy error to forgive. Well played!

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