Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ 4 3 | |||||||||||||
| Vul: None | ♥ J 8 6 2 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ A 10 5 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A K 6 | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ A K 9 8 5 2 | ♠ 10 | |||||||||||||
| ♥ Q 10 | ♥ 9 7 5 3 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ 6 4 | ♦ K J 9 8 | |||||||||||||
| ♣ Q 4 2 | ♣ J 8 7 5 | |||||||||||||
| ♠ Q J 7 6 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ A K 4 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ Q 7 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ 10 9 3 | ||||||||||||||
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*Negative
Opening lead: ♠8
Today’s deal is from a match between ladies teams from Austria and England. South was Nicola Smith, long a mainstay of the English ladies team. Most English players use the “weak” no trump, showing 12-14 points. That was obviously not the case for Smith and her partner.
Smith won the opening spade lead with her queen and took stock of her meager assets. There were only six tricks on top, so there was much work to be done. She started by banging down her ♥AK, felling two honors from West and getting her total up to seven tricks. She crossed to dummy with the ♣A and led a low diamond, winning with her queen when East played low. Eight tricks.
Smith now ducked a diamond to East’s nine. East continued with the ♦K to dummy’s ace and the whole hand was known when West discarded a spade to this trick. West had started with 6-2-2-3 distribution and the clubs were sure to be splitting 4-3. Smith cashed dummy’s ♣K and exited with a club, knowing that whoever won this trick would have to give her a ninth trick.
Should East win, she could cash another club and a diamond, but would then have to lead into dummy’s ♥J8. Should West win, which is what happened at the table, West would have to give South the ♠J for her ninth trick. Well played!