Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: North | ♠ K | |||||||||||||
| Vul: N-S | ♥ K Q 9 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ A J 8 4 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A K J 8 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ 10 7 2 | ♠ Q J 8 | |||||||||||||
| ♥ 10 7 5 2 | ♥ A J 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ K 10 2 | ♦ Q 7 5 3 | |||||||||||||
| ♣ Q 10 9 | ♣ 6 4 2 | |||||||||||||
| ♠ A 9 6 5 4 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ 8 6 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ 9 6 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ 7 5 | ||||||||||||||
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*Weak, six spades; with 4-7 high-card points
Opening lead: ♦2
North-South were using weak jump responses to partner’s opening bid, a treatment that has a strong following among today’s tournament players. North chose to raise South to game, no doubt hoping for a better trump suit in his partner’s hand.
The friendly lie of the East-West cards would have seen declarer home against most defenders, but East on this deal was Chuck Berger, of Detroit, a leading American expert. The opening diamond lead was ducked in dummy and won by Berger with the queen. Berger shifted accurately to a low heart to West’s 10 and dummy’s king. He only needed for his partner to have an entry and the contract could be defeated.
Declarer cashed dummy’s ♠K as Berger followed suit with the jack. South cashed the ♦A and ruffed a diamond, felling West’s king. The ♠A was cashed next and Berger followed with the queen! Declarer can succeed at this point by leading a club to dummy and discarding a heart on the ♦J. West would have to ruff this with his natural trump trick.
South needed the spades to be 3-3 or the contract was hopeless, so he did the same thing any good player would do — he led another spade hoping that Berger’s original trump holding was Q-J-10. West won this with the 10 and led a heart. Berger’s two heart tricks left South down one after a great defense.