Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ A K 5 | |||||||||||||
| Vul: All | ♥ K Q 9 8 2 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ 6 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ K 4 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ 10 9 2 | ♠ Q 8 6 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♥ — | ♥ J | |||||||||||||
| ♦ K Q 10 9 8 2 | ♦ A J 7 5 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♣ J 10 9 5 | ♣ Q 7 6 | |||||||||||||
| ♠ J 7 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ A 10 7 6 5 4 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ — | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A 8 2 | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Opening lead: ♦K
What would you open as dealer with the South hand? We guess that if this question were put to a group of 100 bridge players, we’d get some support for pass, 1♥, 2♥, 3♥, and 4♥. When this deal was played at a tournament in China, the South player in today’s deal chose to open 1♥. He then sat back and watched the show. We are not sure of the meaning of North’s double at his first turn. Most American experts, we think, would bid 4♦ to confirm a heart fit with sound values for game. He certainly showed a heart fit with sound values at his second turn.
The contract offered very little play, other than finding a singleton or doubleton ♠Q. Declarer did the best he could. He ruffed the opening diamond lead, led a low heart to dummy’s king, and ruffed dummy’s last diamond. South then cashed the ♣A and led a club to dummy’s king, intending to play a third club. Should the defender who won this trick hold the ♠Q, he would have to lead away from it or yield a ruff-sluff.
His plan might have worked on this lie of the cards, but East smartly dropped the ♣Q under the king. This enabled West to win the third club and lead a spade through dummy’s ace-king. There was nothing for declarer to do to save his contract and he finished down one. Nice play by East!