Contract Bridge

This deal occurred in the match between Italy and the United States in 1951. It is notable chiefly because both declarers misplayed the hand but made the maximum number of tricks anyway.

The U.S. team gained 750 points because its North-South pair bid seven diamonds while the Italians stopped in six diamonds at the other table. Both Wests led the king of clubs, and after taking the ace, both declarers cashed five diamonds and five spades, leaving South with only the Q-10 of hearts.

On the last spade, West — who had been reduced to the K-8 of hearts and queen of clubs — had to discard before dummy, which held the A-9 of hearts and jack of clubs. West was squeezed, so both declarers finished with all the tricks.

The squeeze succeeded only because West had the king of hearts and the club queen. But there was a much better approach available that would have yielded 13 tricks even if East had held the heart king.

The proper line of play is to win the club lead and ruff a club. Declarer then cashes dummy’s K-Q of trump and, after he sees that the missing trumps are divided 3-2, ruffs another club.

A spade to dummy’s jack is followed by a third club ruff with South’s last trump, the ace. Declarer then crosses to the ace of hearts, draws East’s last trump with the jack while discarding the queen of hearts from his hand, and scores the last four tricks with the A-K-Q-10 of spades.

Ruffing dummy’s J-10-7 of clubs is better than relying solely on West to hold the heart king — a 50% chance. The suggested line of play will succeed whenever the trumps are divided 3-2, a 68% probability.