| Board 85 Vul: NS Dealer N WEST |
NORTH Q J 4 3 2  Q T  Q J 6  A J 2 |
EAST |
| K T 8 5 A A T 8 5 4 3 9 6 |
SOUTH |
6 K 5 3 K 9 K Q T 8 7 5 3 |
 |
A 9 7 J 9 8 7 6 4 2 7 2 4 |
| SOUTH | WEST | NORTH | EAST |
| Moss | Zia | Gitelman | Rosenberg |
| -- | -- | 1 |
2 |
| 2 |
3NT | Pass | Pass |
| 4 |
Dbl | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | |||
Lead: 9 |
|||
Zia made a winning choice with his 3NT bid. Brad's bid of 4 would have been right on another day. His bid, if wrong, rated to only cost an imp or two against an ordinary defender. But watch ...
On the 9, Michael played the suit preference 3. Declarer lead the Q and of course Michael did not cover. After winning the A, Zia played the 5 over to his partner's K and now Michael played back his singleton spade. Zia still had his A as an entry to give his partner the spade ruff, plus his K was a winner. The underlead was necessary to get the spade through, while preserving the entry to give partner his ruff. Zia was probably fairly certain that declarer was 37?? and could visualize just this layout. Our hero!
Down 3 for +800. Win 9 imps, and ultimately the match!