Contract Bridge

Famous Hand

This deal occurred in the semifinal of the 1992 playoffs to select a team to represent the United States at the World Team Olympiad later that year.

When Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth held the North-South cards against David Berkowitz and Larry Cohen, the bidding went as shown.

Cohen’s two-diamond opening showed a weak two-bid in either major. Meckstroth’s two-notrump overcall was natural, ostensibly describing a hand of opening notrump strength. He was gambling that Berkowitz wouldn’t know which suit his partner had and would lead the wrong one. North-South then settled into three notrump after Rodwell’s Stayman inquiry did not bear fruit.

As Meckstroth had hoped, Berkowitz did indeed lead the wrong suit, opting for a low spade. Declarer took East’s nine with the king and immediately returned a spade, hoping Berkowitz would duck. If the king of diamonds was favorably located — and it was — nine tricks would be there for the taking.

But Berkowitz had been paying close attention to the proceedings and was not about to let Meckstroth steal the game-going trick. Knowing full well at this point that his partner’s suit was hearts, Berkowitz rose with the ace of spades and accurately fired back the queen of hearts to cater to the possibility that South might hold the singleton jack. When the smoke cleared, declarer was down three for minus 300.

At the other table, North-South wound up in four diamonds, making five for a score of plus 150, which gave their team a combined pickup of 450 points (10 IMPs) on the deal.