Goren Bridge: Must be duck season

goren bridge by bob jones

Today’s deal is from the recent tournament in Providence, Rhode Island. It features several ducks, the last of which is a beauty.

South played low from dummy on the opening diamond lead. East played the nine and South ducked. This might seem strange, but South had few tricks and he was hoping for something good to happen. East continued with the queen of diamonds, which South also ducked. East shifted to a low club. South played low from hand and captured West’s 10 with dummy’s king. A club from the table went to East’s ace, and East cashed the queen of clubs before leading a club to dummy’s nine. South discarded a diamond and West a diamond and a spade.

South cashed dummy’s queen of spades and led a spade to his ace, forcing another diamond discard from West. South now brilliantly led a heart to dummy’s eight! East could win and lead a spade, but South could easily take the rest of the tricks. West would have to discard and he would not be able to defend the position. Instead of winning the queen, however, East ducked and let dummy’s eight win the trick!

South cashed the ace and king of hearts, but then had to give West the last two tricks. Thanks for this deal goes to west coast expert Wafik Abdou.