Goren on Bridge

Neither vulnerable, West deals

North had enough in points to go right to game over South’s jump, but his queen of diamonds was a questionable value so he chose to just invite. South was happy to accept.

West cashed the ace and king of diamonds before shifting to a low spade. South successfully finessed dummy’s jack and cashed the ace of trumps. South could handle the bad trump split, but what could he do about the clubs? The king was probably with West for his opening bid. What could be done to avoid a second club loser?

Declarer led a low heart and inserted his eight when East played low. A spade to the queen and the ace of spades eliminated spades from both the North and South hands. South led a low club from dummy and played his nine when East played low. Had East played the jack instead, South would have covered with the queen to achieve the same position.

West won with his 10 and had an unhappy choice. He could lead a club into declarer’s acequeen or yield a ruff-sluff. He did his best by leading the king of spades, but South ruffed with dummy’s king of hearts while discarding the queen of clubs from his hand. He finessed East out of his 10 of hearts, drew the last trump, and claimed the balance. Well done!