Hand of the Week
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♥ | Pass | 1♠ | |
| Pass | 2♦ | Pass | 3NT |
| All Pass |
This deal occurred in the national Mixed Pairs at the 2000 Spring NABC in Cincinnati. Declarer was Jill Meyers, playing with Mitch Dunitz. It was reported by Barry Rigal.
West led the ♣10, and Meyers let it hold! West duly led another club (who wouldn’t?). Declarer can obviously succeed by relying on a 3-3 heart break, but Meyers wanted better odds.
She played a spade to the ace and another spade.
East does best to play a deceptive jack, but he won the king and shifted to a low diamond to the 10 and jack. Back came a diamond to the king. Now Meyers cashed the ♣A, forcing East to discard a heart (a spade discard provides 10 tricks for declarer). She then cashed the top hearts and exited with a diamond. East could take two diamond tricks, but had to lead a spade at trick 12. Meyers guessed right, inserting the 10 for nine tricks and a great score.
The full deal:
