Contract Bridge

On this deal from the 1989 world team championship final, the United States picked up a substantial swing when Chip Martel and Lew Stansby bid a slam that was missed by their Brazilian counterparts at the other table.

Martel was North and Stansby South in the auction shown. Stansby’s two diamond rebid was a bit conservative, but he made up for it later by carrying on to slam after Martel’s leap to five diamonds. Indeed, Stansby’s five- spade cuebid was an attempt to reach a grand slam if his partner had the right hand. But Martel understandably decided that he had already done his all, so he signed off at six.

West led a heart, and declarer tried dummy’s queen. Stansby ruffed East’s king, cashed the ace of spades and ruffed a spade. He then led a trump to the king, ruffed another spade, ruffed a heart and ruffed his last spade. A club was discarded on the ace of hearts, and a club was led toward the K-J.

Declarer might seem to have a pure guess as to whether to play the king or jack of clubs after East follows low. In actuality, though, Stansby had much more to go on. The play to this point had revealed that East started with five spades to the K-J and the K-J-10 of hearts. If he also held the ace of clubs, he would surely have opened the bidding rather than pass initially. So Stansby played the jack of clubs, and the slam was home.

At the other table, the Brazilian North- South pair rested quietly in five diamonds, giving the Americans a 500point (11- IMP) gain on the deal.