This deal occurred in a regional pair championship in Los Angeles many years ago. The hand was played at many tables, of course, but our story concerns itself solely with the table where Mrs. Kelsey Petterson held the South cards.

When she first looked at her extraordinary hand, Mrs. Petterson wondered whether it would be better to open the bidding with two spades (strong in those days) or two clubs when it was her turn to bid. However, the problem became altogether academic when Mrs. Petterson thought she heard the player on her right open the bidding with seven diamonds!

Undaunted by this totally unexpected development, Mrs. Petterson bid seven spades. After two passes, East doubled, and, after three passes, West led the jack of hearts.

There was not much to the play. Declarer ruffed the heart and drew four rounds of trump, the jack obligingly falling on the second round. When she then cashed the A-K of clubs, the missing queen also fell, so the upshot was that she made seven spades doubled for a score of 2,470 points.

East-West were understandably nonplussed by this dreadful result. They realized they would get a very bad score on the deal, especially since East had elected to double the grand slam, giving North-South an optimal result that was unlikely to be duplicated at the other tables.

As the East-West pair were disconsolately putting their cards back into the duplicate board, Mrs. Petterson turned to her right-hand opponent and asked, “May I please see what an opening seven diamond bid looks like?”

“I opened the bidding with one diamond,” East sadly replied.

Tomorrow: How to capture a knave.

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