Contract Bridge

This sensational deal occurred in the 1988 Goldman Pairs in New York City, an event that dates back to the earliest days of duplicate tournament bridge. In the nearly 90 years that the event has been contested, though, probably no one has ever been dealt a better hand than North’s.

North began the proceedings with a strong and artificial two-club bid. South made the natural response of two hearts, promising eight or more high-card points and a good suit, and one round of bidding later, North launched into Blackwood.

North’s goal, of course, was to find out how many kings South held; any two would guarantee 13 tricks. But when South indicated only one king, North was faced with a bitter irony: Though he had 11 tricks in his own hand and his partner had another, 12 tricks might not be made if South’s king was in hearts.

North could see little advantage to playing the slam in spades, so he bid six notrump, hoping to score 10 points more than those pairs who made six spades -- an important consideration at matchpoint scoring.

West, holding all of his side’s assets, chose a safe spade lead, and declarer now had to find a way to score a 12th trick. Essentially, his only hope was that the opponent with the king of clubs also held the king of diamonds. If so, the slam could not be defeated.

Accordingly, South won the spade lead and played five more spades, discarding three hearts and two diamonds. He then cashed the ace of hearts and ace of clubs before leading the club jack.

West won the trick but was endplayed in three suits. A heart lead would allow declarer to score the king, and a club return would give South the queen. West therefore tried the diamond nine, but declarer allowed this to run to his queen, and the slam was home.