Almost Bridge 7E02 (Dec 85) by Richard Pavlicek

Rudolph Wins Again

7 x by South

Both Vul	A K J 10 9 3 6 4 A Q J 10 9
J 9 7 4 3 8 7 6 5 4 — 7 5 4		Q 10 6 5 A K Q 2 K 3 K 8 6
Lead: 8	8 2 — A Q J 10 9 8 7 5 2 3 2

Slush	Randolph	Mush	Rudolph
West Dbl	North 1 Dbl	East 1 NT Dbl	South 7 All Pass

Randolph, North, opened one club and Mush overcalled one notrump. This might have influenced the bidding of many South players; but not Rudolph, who had diamonds coming out of his antlers. “Seven diamonds,” he said with defiance. “Double,” shouted Mush out of turn; but everyone else echoed the sentiment, even Randolph.

The excitement had drawn a large crowd to Rudolph’s table and the kibitzers were buzzing. “Rudolph bit off too much this time,” said one. “It can’t be made,” whispered another.

Slush led the heart eight and the contract seemed doomed, as the club finesse was clearly offside. But reindeer have a magic of their own and, to Rudolph, an “impossible” contract only means that he has to play a little harder. How did Rudolph make his grand slam?

The heart eight lead was covered by the nine and queen, and Rudolph ruffed with the diamond seven. Dummy was entered with a spade to lead the diamond four: three; two (East cannot gain by playing his king). Then the heart 10 was led, covered by East and ruffed.

Rudolph led all but one of his diamonds, discarding clubs from dummy, and then led a spade to dummy to reach a three-card ending. North remained with J-3 in hearts and the club ace.

There was no defense. East had to keep A-2 in hearts (else a low heart lead would ruff out the ace); West had to keep 7-6 in hearts (else the heart jack lead would force East to cover and establish the heart three!); so each defender could keep only one club.

Rudolph cashed the club ace and won the last trick with his club three.

And yes, his name will go down in history.