Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ 10 6 5 | |||||||||||||
| Vul: E-W | ♥ — | |||||||||||||
| ♦ Q J 9 5 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A 10 8 6 5 | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ Q | ♠ 9 7 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♥ A Q 10 6 5 | ♥ J 7 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ 10 8 7 | ♦A K 6 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♣ K Q J 7 | ♣ 4 3 2 | |||||||||||||
| ♠ A K J 8 3 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ K 9 8 3 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ 9 | ||||||||||||||
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Opening lead: ♣K
This is another deal from a recent tournament in China. Both tables reached 4♠ on auctions that were only slightly different. Neither West found the killing lead of the ♠Q, reasonably choosing the ♣K instead.
At the other table, declarer won the opening lead with dummy’s ace and ruffed a club. He ruffed a heart in dummy, ruffed another club, and ruffed another heart. Another club ruff was followed by a heart ruff with dummy’s last trump. South led the established 10 of clubs and discarded his diamond when East ruffed. East shifted to the ♦A, but South ruffed with the ♠J. The two high trumps gave him 10 tricks.
At this table, when South ruffed a club at trick two, the West player, known to us only as Liu, casually played the ♣Q. Declarer took this at face value. He ruffed a heart in dummy and led the ♣10. Perhaps thinking that this was a free play, he discarded his losing diamond. Liu happily grabbed this with his jack and shifted to the ♠Q. South won and ruffed another heart in dummy. When he led the ♣8, East ruffed and South now had to lose three heart tricks to go with the club loser. Nice play, Mr. Liu!
