At the recent North American Championships in Chicago, Aldo Gerli of Italy and John Overdeck of New Jersey made this great save together. We don’t know if they are a regular partnership or if they just met in Chicago.
West, Gerli, thought that partner probably had a short suit to his pre-empt, so he led diamonds. South rose with dummy’s ace and led his king and a spade to West’s ace. West continued with another diamond. South could have saved a trick by taking the finesse, but he rose appropriately with dummy’s king. Overdeck ruffed and under-led his clubs to Gerli, who cashed the queen of diamonds and led the fourth round of the suit. If South ruffed low to dummy, East would score the nine of spades. A ruff with dummy’s queen would give West a trick with the jack. Down to two after a pretty defense.
Against the same contract at the other table, West led a club. East won and shifted to diamonds, and when West won his Ace of Spades he got a diamond rough. There was no third spade trick at this table, and there was no diamond loser. Big profit by making four!