Goren on Bridge

Today’s deal is from a team competition some years ago. The result seems cut-and-dried. NorthSouth are off the first three club tricks and West has an automatic club lead. What might seem routine when looking at a hand on paper, however, can often be far from routine for the players at the table. East played the queen of clubs on the opening ace of clubs lead. Unless the queen was a singleton, it promised that East also held the jack. West cashed the king of clubs and had to decide what to do next. He knew his partner had the jack of clubs but he didn’t know how many clubs he had. He decided to cash the ace of spades before playing another club.

Oops! South ruffed, cashed the king of diamonds and the ace and king of hearts. A diamond to dummy’s ace drew the last trump and South’s remaining club was discarded on the queen of hearts. Making five!

The bidding started out the same at the other table, but East-West competed to five spades over five diamonds. South carried on to six diamonds, which was doubled by West. Once again the ace of clubs was led and East played the queen. West then tried to cash the ace of spades before a second club. Oops! This time declarer was able to shed two clubs on dummy’s hearts. Making six, doubled!

We would lead a low club to partner’s jack at trick two and let him make the next mistake.

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