Kerri Sanborn, of Delray Beach, Florida, has been one of America’ s leading players for more than four decades. She was South in today’ s deal. Sanborn has declared many hands in her long career with only a 4-3 trump fit. Very few, however, have seen her as the player with only three trumps. She accepted North’ s invitation with an air of great confidence. She let the opening heart lead run to her queen and calmly led the king of spades from her hand. East ducked his ace, thinking it a...

No one made a bad bid, but the obstructive East-West bidding jockeyed North-South into a game contract that was far from cold. The opening club lead was covered by the queen and king and ducked by South. East shifted to the king of hearts, won by dummy’s ace. Declarer led a spade to his queen and West’s king. West led his remaining heart — low, eight, ruff. South led a diamond to dummy’s ace and led a spade. There was nothing East could do to defeat the contract at this point. He won and led...

North’s leap to slam was a bold move. It’s the kind of bid one might make if his team is trailing near the end of a match. It might create a swing that leads to a comeback victory. The easiest route to 12 tricks would be three club ruffs in dummy. West’s inspired trump lead prevented that. A 3-3 spade split combined with two club ruffs might also do it. Rather than just relying on that, South decided to see if dummy’s hearts could be established. South won the opening trump lead with dummy’s...

Both vulnerable, West deals North must have had an exciting few seconds waiting to see if two clubs became the final contract. West, who might well have passed, persevered with two hearts and was gob-smacked by what happened next. North jumped to four no trump, showing a huge minor suit hand with longer clubs than diamonds, and South jumped to six diamonds. North carried on to the grand slam and West was looking for a place to hide. South won the opening heart lead with dummy’s ace and led a...

Somebody spiked the punch at the club’s Saturday night duplicate and the players were bidding a little wildly. Hard Luck Louie was feeling his oats when he bid to slam, but the contract had decent play. The opening heart lead went to dummy’s queen, East’s king, and Louie’s ace. Louie ran the queen of spades at trick two and was quickly down one. East won with his king and returned a heart. “Both kings offside,” said Louie. “Darn my luck!” Lucky Larry was also feeling the joys, and he arrived...