Contract Bridge

This extraordinary hand was played many years ago by Lee Hazen, a top-flight player who for many years was the chief attorney for the American Contract Bridge League.

Hazen was East, and South reached six spades on the bidding shown. West led a diamond, and this is Hazen’s account of what happened after that, as related by him in Bridge World magazine:

“I was of course disappointed when declarer ruffed the opening lead. South then went into a long trance and finally emerged from it by cashing the ace of hearts and leading the ten of spades next.

“My partner discarded a heart, and I reacted like the typical young lawyer I was. The first thing you learn in law school is to be suspicious. You spend several hours a day being suspicious of people, of things and of ideas. If you’re really good at it, you eventually develop the ability to be just abstractly suspicious.

“I found it easy to be suspicious at this particular moment. What was declarer trying to do to me? I didn’t bother to work it out. I just knew that if declarer wanted me to take the ten of spades, it couldn’t be good for me to oblige him. So, I played the three and stared at declarer with a cold legal eye.

“South went into a new trance and then led the A- K of clubs. By now I was carried away by the spirit of the thing. I had refused one trump trick, and nobody was going to bully me into taking another.

“So, I discarded a heart instead of ruffing. South struggled quietly for a while but eventually went down one.”

Of course, Hazen had found the only defense to beat the slam.