Contract Bridge

Famous Hand

The scene was the annual European team championship, played in Amsterdam in 1955. The hand showed occurred when Norway met the Italian team. East-West were Mario Franco and Michele Giovine of Italy. They were playing the highly artificial Marmic system, and Franco’s two-club opening showed a three-suited hand of 5-4-4-0 or 4-4-4-1 distribution.

The Norwegian South, correctly or not, decided to overcall with three clubs in hopes of stealing bidding space from his opponents before they could locate their best suit. Giovine, who did not understand or speak English well, then asked for a review of the bidding. Upon being reassured (in Italian) that South had actually bid three clubs, he licked his chops and doubled (in English), which was passed all around.

Declarer won the opening diamond lead in dummy and returned the king of spades to East’s ace. When East then led the king of hearts, South ruffed, cashed his queen of spades and trumped a spade in dummy. Declarer next ruffed another heart and led a low diamond to the ace.

At this point, seven tricks had been played, and South had won six of them. He still had the A-Q-J of trump, as well as the J-7 of diamonds and a spade. Giovine’s last six cards were all trumps.

When declarer next played a heart from dummy and discarded his spade on it, West was forced to ruff and return a trump to South’s jack. Declarer then exited with a diamond, again forcing West to ruff and return a trump into the A-Q. As a result, South made three clubs doubled!

At the other table, the Italian South also ended up in three clubs. But because he wasn’t doubled and didn’t realize that West had all the missing trumps, he wound up down two.