This deal occurred in the final of the 1992 U.S. Women’s Team Championship to select America’s representative to the 1992 Women’s Team Olympiad.

When the deal was first played, Nancy Passell and Nell Cahn reached four spades as shown against two members of the eventual winning squad, Amalya Kearse and Jacqui Mitchell. Cahn, South, won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and led a spade to the jack and king.

West’s club shift was taken by dummy’s ace, and Cahn led a second spade, winning the queen when East followed low. Declarer then conceded a spade to East, who exited with a club to dummy’s king.

Cahn now had to guess how to attack the heart suit, and she solved the problem immediately by leading the queen, covered by the king and ace. West’s jack of hearts took the next trick, and declarer claimed the remainder, making four.

At the second table, Tobi Deutsch and Mildred Breed ended up in four hearts with North the declarer after a transfer sequence. The seemingly stronger eight-card trump fit came with a built-in flaw, however, and the opponents were quick to exploit it.

Sue Picus, East, led a club to declarer’s ace, and Deutsch misguessed how to initiate the trump suit by leading the nine and letting it ride.

Sharon Osberg, West, won with the jack and quickly shifted to the K-10 of spades. Picus took the ten with the ace and returned a spade for Osberg to ruff, and the contract was down one.

Note that if declarer had led the queen of hearts rather than the nine at trick two, or had simply played the ace and another heart, West could not have obtained a ruff, and North would have gotten home unscathed with 10 tricks.

Tomorrow: Steppingstone to success.