Goren Bridge

South in today’s deal was David Berkowitz, of Boca Raton, Florida. Berkowitz is a professional player and a member of the American Contract Bridge League’s Hall of Fame. Like everyone else in these pandemic times, he is restricted to playing bridge online. Online bridge can be good fun, but when it is played with a computer and a mouse instead of cards, strange things can happen.

The defense started with three rounds of spades. Berkowitz ruffed the third spade, crossed to dummy with the ace of clubs, and took the losing heart finesse. Most of us, at this point, would rely on the diamond finesse for the contract. Well, Berkowitz did not get into the Hall of Fame by rushing to take a finesse.

West exited with a club to dummy’s king. Berkowitz drew the outstanding trumps, ending in dummy, ruffed a club, and cashed his last trump. In the three-card ending, Berkowitz had three diamonds in his hand and two diamonds and a club in dummy. It appeared from the play that West started with 4-1-4-4 distribution, but who had the queen of diamonds? West had been forced to discard two diamonds to keep his last club. Should he have started with the queen it was now doubleton. Berkowitz decided to play West for the queen. He cashed the king of diamonds and led a diamond, intending to play his ace. He mis-clicked however and played the jack instead, making his game!

Berkowitz immediately told the truth about what happened. “Confession is good for the soul,” he said.