Far-sighted Play
Goren Bridge
Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ K 10 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vul: E-W | ♥ 9 4 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ A 9 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ Q J 6 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♠ J 6 3 2 | ♠ Q 8 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♥ Q 6 | ♥ 10 8 7 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ Q J 7 5 4 3 2 | ♦ K 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ — | ♣ 10 9 8 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♠ A 9 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♥ A K J 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ A K 7 4 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opening lead: ♦Q
Today’s deal is from a tournament in The Netherlands 15 years ago. The actual auction is not known to us except that West never made a bid. South was Dutch expert Huub Bertens, who relocated to Bend, Oregon, not too long ago. We have supplied a reasonable auction above.
Bertens won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and made the far-sighted play of ruffing a diamond in his hand at trick two. When he next cashed the ♣A, learning about the 4-0 split, he was in a good position to overcome it. He led a low heart from his hand. Say that East won and led a trump. South could win that in dummy and ruff another diamond. Bertens could then cash the ♣K and the ♥A, then cross to dummy with the ♠K. He would draw the last trump, discarding his low spade, and lead a heart toward his king-jack. He would then make his best guess in that suit if the queen hadn’t already appeared.
The queen had long since appeared, as West rose with the queen when Bertens ducked a heart at trick four — not that it would have helped West to play low. Well played!
