GOREN BRIDGE

THE BATTLE

Neither vulnerable, South deals

A pretty normal auction. The NorthSouth auction ran out of juice at the three level, and both sides settled into the battle for nine tricks.

South won the apparently helpful trump lead in hand with the nine. He led a low diamond toward the dummy, and West rose with his king of diamonds to lead another trump. Dummy’s eight won the trick and a club to the jack lost to West’s queen. West led a low diamond to East’s ace, who led his last trump. Declarer now had to lose three diamonds and two clubs, drifting down one.

South discussed the deal with friends later hoping for sympathy. He found none. The opening trump lead told him where the queen was. The winning line was to rise with dummy’s ace at trick one and lead a club to the jack. He could win the second trump, finessing if necessary, and lead the king of clubs to knock out the ace.

Should the defense lead a third round of trumps, South can cash the 10 of clubs and take advantage of dummy’s nine of clubs to discard his last diamond. Anything else by the defense and South would have choices, including ruffing his last diamond.