Goren bridge: The spots rule

Goren Bridge by Bob Jones

A normal auction led to an excellent contract, but it seemed doomed on the opening lead. South knew from the bidding that East was void in spades and would ruff the ace of spades. A diamond shift by East, after ruffing, would leave South with a diamond loser and two spade losers to go with the ruff, and the contract would fail. South looked at his beautiful spot cards in the spade suit and found a solution.

South did not play the ace of spades at trick one, rather playing low and allowing West to win the trick. West had nothing better to do, so he continued with the queen of spades. Again, South played low from dummy and let West win the trick. West then led the seven of spades and East ruffed the ace, then shifted to a low diamond. South was now in charge. South won with the ace and cashed the ace and king of hearts to draw the trumps. He then led the 10 of spades. West covered with the jack and dummy ruffed. A club to South’s ace was followed by the eight of spades, on which South discarded dummy’s remaining diamond. South ruffed his low diamond in dummy and claimed the balance. Very nicely played.