Goren Bridge: Curiouser and curiouser

Top-level European competition deal featuring Dennis Bilde and Martin Schaltz, showcasing expert bidding and play for a slam.

Today’s deal is from a recent top-level competition held in Europe. North-South, respectively, were European stars Dennis Bilde and Martin Schaltz.

North-South had plenty of values but no fit, and South’s five-no-Trump bid asked North to pick the best slam. This is our kind of question, as Bilde could do no wrong! North South can make a slam in all five strains, including spades and clubs, although those two would require careful play. Bilde chose to bid the slam in no trump and Schaltz had to guess which red suit to play on after winning the opening spade lead. We can’t see much of a reason for picking one suit over the other, but Schaltz chose to play on hearts. He cashed his king of hearts, crossed to dummy with a spade, and cashed the ace of hearts. When the 10 fell from West, Schaltz led the jack of hearts to knock out the queen and claimed 12 tricks.

An additional oddity in this deal is that while 12 tricks are available in each possible strain, there is no thirteenth trick available in any of them.

We thank Povl Sommer, a bridge journalist from Denmark, for bringing this deal to our attention.