This deal occurred in the 1982 Grand National Pairs. Cliff Russell, well-known Miami Beach expert who finished second in the event, held the South hand and wound up as declarer in five hearts doubled.

West led the spade ten, covered by the jack and ruffed by East. East returned a trump to dummy’s ace, West showing out, and Russell, with another trump loser to come, had to find a way to dispose of his two remaining spade losers.

He started by cashing the club ace and continued with the queen. When East followed low, Russell discarded his seven of spades as West also followed low. Declarer then ruffed the deuce of clubs, cashed the K-Q of trump and exited with the eight of trump to East’s jack, producing this position:

East now found himself between a rock and a hard place. If he returned a low diamond, Russell would win with dummy’s queen and dispose of the queen of spades on the ace of diamonds; if he returned the king of clubs instead, declarer would ruff and then dispose of his spade loser on dummy’s jack of clubs. Either way, Russell was certain to make five hearts doubled for a score of 850 points.

Tomorrow >> Famous Hand.

— Steve Becker