There’s no doubt that duplicate bridge reduces the luck factor of the game to a great extent, but it certainly doesn’t eliminate it altogether. Today’s hand aptly demonstrates that point. The deal occurred in a playoff match to determine which of two teams would represent the United States in the 1973 world championship.

It was the first deal of a 128-board match, and it was a harbinger of things to come. At one table, North-South got to seven hearts as shown and unluckily went down one when Jeff Rubens, partnered by B. Jay Becker, led a spade, which Becker ruffed.

Rubens reasoned that, based on the bidding, there was a good chance that North-South held nine spades, so he chose the spade lead as the best shot to stop the grand slam.

At the second table, where Rubens’ teammates Andy Bernstein and Becker’s son Mike held the North-South cards, the bidding went more quickly:

Bernstein, North, naturally started to think in terms of a slam after his partner doubled East’s preemptive bid for takeout, and he backed his appraisal with a cuebid of four clubs. When Mike showed more than a fair-to-middling double by cuebidding in return, Bernstein jumped to seven spades.

Strictly speaking, seven spades was not as good a contract as seven hearts — mathematically, there was a greater chance of a heart ruff with spades as trump than a spade ruff with hearts as trump — but seven spades was the winner, while seven hearts was the loser.

Sometimes luck, rather than skill, can be the key component in the outcome of a deal.

Tomorrow: Playing according to the odds.