Goren Bridge: Magic in the air

Weekly Sunday bridge

Today’s deal is from a tournament in Turkey. A competitive auction saw North-South bid reasonably to game in hearts. The contract seems doomed on this lie of the cards, but there was magic in the air.

The defense started with two high spades and a third spade, ruffed by East with the three of hearts and over-ruffed with the four. Ruffing out dummy’s spade winner seemed like a good idea, but it proved to be an error. South cashed the ace of hearts and the trump position was revealed. A heart to dummy’s 10 was followed by the king of hearts. South came back to his hand with the ace of diamonds, leaving this position:

South drew the last trump with the queen of hearts, shedding a diamond from dummy, and East could not defend the position. Should he discard a club, South would duck a club to East and set up his own clubs. East discarded a diamond, instead, so South led a diamond to the king and another diamond to East, who hand to lead away from his king of clubs. Making four after a beautifully played deal.