Contract Bridge

This deal occurred in the semifinals of the 1989 Vanderbilt team championship. Both Souths wound up in four hearts doubled, a contract where declarer seems certain to lose three hearts and a spade for down one. However, one of the declarers found a way to get home with 10 tricks.

At the first table, the bidding went as shown. East’s two-heart bid showed length in spades and diamonds, after which North leaped aggressively to four hearts.

South won West’s jack-ofspades lead with the ace, led a heart to dummy’s queen and returned the ten of spades. This was covered by the queen and king and ruffed by West, who shifted to the diamond king. Declarer took the ace, ruffed a diamond and conceded a spade to East’s nine. West could not be denied the A-J of trump, so South finished down one, -200.

At the second table, where Bobby Wolff was declarer, East also showed a spadediamond two-suiter during the auction. But here Wolff took better advantage of what he had learned from the bidding.

West led a low diamond. Wolff won with the ace, ruffed a diamond, led a heart to the queen and ruffed another diamond. Then, utilizing his knowledge of the opposing distribution, he cashed the ace of clubs and finessed the ten. When East couldn’t ruff, another club was led to the jack, and the king was cashed.

Wolff next led a spade to the king, giving him the first nine tricks. He then played the ace of spades, ruffed by West with the ten. Wolff still had the K-7 of hearts (and a spade) at this point, so he could not be prevented from scoring his king of hearts regardless of what West returned.

Making four hearts doubled was worth 790 points. Added to the 200 gained by his teammates at the other table, this gave Wolff’s team a 14-IMP pickup on the deal.