Contract Bridge

This deal occurred in the final of the 2001 Bermuda Bowl.

The event was won by the United States, which made a remarkable comeback in the 128- deal match after trailing Norway by 79 IMPs at the half.

The U.S. victory was particularly notable because it marked the first time a woman — Rose Meltzer — had ever won the world open team championship.

The bidding shown took place when Lew Stansby and Chip Martel were NorthSouth for the U.S. Martel’s five-heart response to four notrump indicated two key cards (two aces, or an ace and the king of trump). His six-spade bid denied holding either minor-suit king, so Stansby settled for the small slam.

Martel won the opening heart lead with dummy’s ace, discarding a diamond, and then misguessed how to start the spades by cashing dummy’s ace.

This created a trump winner for West, and although it might seem that declarer was now in danger of also losing an eventual diamond finesse to West’s king, Martel actually had matters well under control.

He ruffed dummy’s remaining heart, cashed the king of spades and then played the Q-K-A of clubs.

If West ruffed, he would be forced to return a diamond into South’s A- Q or else lead a heart, allowing declarer to discard a diamond from dummy while ruffing in his hand.

If West did not ruff, he could later be thrown on lead with the spade queen to produce the same result. Either way, Martel was sure to make the slam.

At the other table, the Norwegian North-South pair reached seven spades and finished down two after declarer also misguessed how to play the spades and subsequently lost a finesse to the diamond king. The 1,630-point gain gave the U.S. a 17-IMP pickup on the deal.