Goren on Bridge

Many contracts fail because declarer plays too quickly. He starts with a good idea but fails to think it through properly.

East rose with his ace of diamonds on the opening lead, felling South’s king, and shifted to the 10 of clubs. South won with his ace and saw that the best chance to bring home his contract was to ruff a club in dummy. South continued with the king of clubs and another club, but West ruffed in front of dummy with the six of spades. Declarer over-ruffed with dummy’s ace, but he now had an inescapable trump loser and he drifted down one.

A little more thought and declarer would have seen how important it was to cash one high trump in dummy before attempting to ruff a club. He should have led a spade to dummy’s ace and discarded a club on the queen of diamonds. South could cross back to his hand with a club to the king and now lead his last club. When West discards, the club is ruffed low in dummy, and South can easily handle the rest of the hand for an easy make. Should West have ruffed the club, South could over-ruff with dummy’s ace and safely draw the rest of the trumps with his queen and jack.

Should West follow to the third round of clubs, declarer will have to decide whether to ruff high or low in dummy. The percentages favor ruffing low. 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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