Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: North | ♠ Q 9 | |||||||||
| Vul: N-S | ♥ J 9 6 5 | |||||||||
| ♦ J 9 8 | ||||||||||
| ♣ J 8 7 2 | ||||||||||
| ♠ 5 4 | ♠ J 10 8 7 3 2 | |||||||||
| ♥ A Q 3 2 | ♥ 8 7 | |||||||||
| ♦ 3 2 | ♦ A 6 5 4 | |||||||||
| ♣ Q 10 9 6 3 | ♣ K | |||||||||
| ♠ A K 6 | ||||||||||
| ♥ K 10 4 | ||||||||||
| ♦ K Q 10 7 | ||||||||||
| ♣ A 5 4 | ||||||||||
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Opening lead: ♣6
The usual suspects were slugging it out at the club’s weekly duplicate when Hard Luck Louie found himself at the helm in this 3NT contract. Louie captured East’s ♣K with his ace at trick one and had to decide which red suit to go after. He decided to play on diamonds and led a low diamond to dummy’s 8. East won with the ace and shifted to the ♠J. Dummy’s queen won this trick and Louie realized that he was going to need at least one heart trick to make his contract so he led a heart to his 10. West grabbed his queen, cashed the ♣Q, and led the ♣10 to set up his clubs while he still had the ♥A. Good defense and the contract was defeated.
Lucky Larry also declared 3NT with the same opening lead. He also wasn’t sure which red suit to attack and he decided to postpone his decision. He played low at trick one and allowed East to hold the trick. Larry won the spade shift in dummy and led a heart to his 10. West won with the queen but couldn’t safely lead another club, so he led his last spade. Larry had time to knock out both red aces and easily came to nine tricks. Well done!