Magic Pulls Grand Slam Out of Hat by Goren y Sharif

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Battle of the Century: Culbertson-Lenz match

By Charles H. Goren and Omar Sharif

Dear Readers: We have had many requests over the years for those hands that we consider to be our favorites. That makes quite a list. For the time being, therefore, we are devoting the Saturday column to a series of famous hands. At the end of the series, we will go back to our weekly column.Mano Dummy reversal

North-South vulnerable. North deals.

Opening lead: heartJ

Sidney Lenz the Grand Old Man of bridge, was a man of many talents. His tournament victories spanned three phases of the game—whist, auction bridge and contract. As a writer, he was the first to write about many of the plays that have become standard today, in addition, he was one of the finest amateur magicians of her day, a high ranked table tennis star and a witty raconteur

His many talents were evident in this hand. First, he bid a grand slam without an ace in his hand, almost a feat of mental telepathy. Then he used his magic to bring home the contract.

West led the heartJ, and declarer could count only 12 tricks-5 trumps, 1 diamond and 6 clubs. It seemed that there was no way to get rid of the losing diamond in his hand because declarer would have to draw at least three rounds of trumps before he could take any discards on his club suit.

However, the high trumps in dummy suggested a method that would allow declarer to increase the number of his tricks by one. He ruffed the opening lead, cashed the spadeK and crossed to the table with the trump queen, in the process learning that trumps were 3-2.

A heart ruff was followed by a diamond to the ace and another heart, ruffed with declarer’s last trump, the jack. Now declarer needed to clear just one final hurdle to land his grand slam—a club break no worse than 3-1.

When a club to the ace went through, the rest was easy. Declarer drew the last trump, discarding a diamond from his hand, and then scored the balance of the tricks, with his clubs. Declare romped home by the simple expedient of increasing five trump winners to six—three ruffs in hand and three high trumps. In those days, this was considered magic. Today, there is a name for the play used by Lenz a dummy reversal