GOREN BRIDGE

West was just fooling around with his two-spade bid, hoping to muddy the waters for his opponents. The opponents, however, were Italian World Champions Lorenzo Lauria and Alfredo Versace, who had smelled this rat before.

Lauria, North, could not be sure that West was being devious, but he doubled to show his spades just in case. He was willing to take his chances on defense if necessary. Versace, South, cue bid to show a spade fit with at least invitational values. North cue bid his heart control in case South had grander ideas than just game. South did not, and North-south settled in the spade game.

Versace won the opening heart lead in dummy and went after trumps right away. He ran the 10 of spades to West's jack. West shifted to the ace of diamonds and then led another diamond. A second spade crashed the king and ace and put West back on lead. West reverted to hearts, which Versace won in hand and ruffed a heart in dummy. Versace inferred from East's play in diamonds, the jack followed by the nine, that East started with only two diamonds. This made his initial distribution 2-62-3. East was therefore the three-to-two favorite to hold the queen of clubs. Versace finessed East for the queen and brought home his contract.

Note that West could have defeated the contract by leading the ace of diamonds originally, and then another diamond. He would then have been able to give partner a diamond ruff with the king of spades to take three trump tricks.