At the recent North American Championships in Chicago, Italy’s Aldo Gerli and New Jersey’s John Overdeck combined to put up this nice defense. We have no idea as to whether they are a regular partnership or if they just met in Chicago.
West, Gerli, thought that partner probably had a short suit for his pre-empt, so he led a diamond. South rose with dummy’s ace and led a spade to his king and West’s ace. West continued with another diamond. South could have saved a trick by taking the finesse, but he reasonably rose with dummy’s king. Overdeck ruffed and under-led his clubs to Gerli, who cashed the queen of diamonds and led a fourth round of the suit. Should South ruff low in dummy, East would score the nine of spades. A ruff with dummy’s queen would give West a trick with the jack. Down two after a lovely defense.
Against the same contract at the other table, West led a club. East won and shifted to a diamond and got a diamond ruff when West won his ace of spades. There was no third spade trick at this table, and also no diamond loser. Making four for a big gain!
