Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ K J 8 5 | |||||||||||||
| Vul: N-S | ♥ 6 4 3 2 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ 8 4 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A K J | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ 9 7 4 | ♠ Q 6 3 | |||||||||||||
| ♥ Q 10 7 5 | ♥ J | |||||||||||||
| ♦ A 10 9 6 | ♦ Q J 5 3 | |||||||||||||
| ♣ 9 8 | ♣ 10 7 4 3 2 | |||||||||||||
| ♠ A 10 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ A K 9 8 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ K 7 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ Q 6 5 | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Opening lead: ♣9
North-South arrived in 4♥ after a routine Stayman auction. Despite a combined 28 high-card points, the deal required some careful handling.
Declarer won the opening club lead with dummy’s ace and led a low heart to the jack and ace. He crossed back to dummy with a club to the jack to lead another heart, playing the eight when East showed out. West won with the 10, but with no clubs remaining, had a difficult decision to make. A heart or a diamond would be instantly fatal, so he did the best he could by shifting to a spade. This did pick up the spade suit for declarer, but South might have done that on his own.
South captured East’s ♠Q with his ace and saw a clear road home. West must have the ♦A, or he surely would have shifted to a diamond rather than a spade. South cashed the ♥K, followed by the ♠10 and a spade to dummy’s king. Dummy’s ♠J was cashed, which West refused to ruff as South shed a diamond. West, trying hard, also declined to ruff the ♣K, but he couldn’t escape his fate. South led dummy’s last trump, which West had to win. West had to give declarer the ♦K for his 10th trick. Well played!