FAMOUS HAND

This deal occurred in the semifinal of the 1996 United States Open Team trials. The match brought together two powerhouse squads captained by Howard Weinstein of Chicago and Zia Mahmood of New York.

The final contract was five spades doubled at both tables, but only one of the declarers got home safely.

At the first table, Michael Rosenberg of the Zia team wound up as declarer after the auction shown. The bidding was relatively straightforward up to East’s four-notrump bid, which asked West to choose a suit for the purpose of sacrificing against four spades.

West, Bruce Ferguson, led the heart ace and cashed the spade ace. He then exited with the king of clubs, a play that would have been harmless on most occasions, but not this one.

Rosenberg won the club king with the ace, discarding a diamond from dummy, drew a second round of trump and led the jack of clubs. West covered with the queen, ruffed in dummy, and declarer subsequently discarded another diamond from dummy on the ten of clubs. Rosenberg then made the rest of the tricks on a crossruff for plus 650.

At the other table, North rather than South wound up as declarer at the same contract, and East led the jack of diamonds. Declarer, Steve Weinstein, won the ace and conceded a spade to the ace. Lew Stansby, West, then cashed the heart king and exited with the diamond queen. Weinstein won with the king, but, without any assistance from West in the club suit, he could not avoid a diamond loser at the end and finished down one, minus 100.

The combined pickup of 750 points for Zia’s team gave it a 13-IMP gain on the deal and helped put the team into the final.

©2020 King Features Syndicate Inc.