Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vul: E-W | ♥ K 7 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ K 10 7 5 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ 10 9 6 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♠ Q 10 9 7 | ♠ J 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♥ 9 3 | ♥ 10 8 5 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ J 6 2 | ♦ Q 9 8 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ K Q J 8 | ♣ 7 5 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♠ A K 8 5 3 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♥ A Q J 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ A | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ A 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opening lead: ♣K
We thank Australian expert Tim Bourke for this deal. We are told that South was playing online with a robot. We can’t ask the robot about the bidding, but we expect that the 3♦ bid showed some useful values and the 4♥ bid was all the robot could “think” of.
South won the opening club lead in hand with the ace and saw that the only chance was to develop the spade suit. The most likely split of six missing cards is 4-2, so South found a line of play that would succeed as long as neither major suit split worse than 4-2. Declarer cashed the ♠A at trick two and then ruffed a spade low in dummy. He crossed back to his hand with the ♦A and ruffed another spade, this time with dummy’s king. Had he ruffed low, East would have over-ruffed and the contract would have been defeated.
South cashed the ♦K and discarded his remaining club, followed by the ace, queen, and jack of hearts. Declarer left the last trump outstanding and started running his established spades by leading the king. East could ruff whenever he liked, but that was the only trick for the defense. South and the robot made six!