North South vulnerable. West deals.

North South vulnerable. West deals.
NORTH
K Q 8 4 3
A 5
Q
A K 6 5 3
WEST EAST
J A 10 9 5
K Q 10 8 7 9 6 3
8 7 6 5 10 4 3
9 7 2 J 10 4
SOUTH
7 6 2
J 4 2
A K J 9 2
Q 8
The bidding:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
2 3 Pass 3
Pass 4 Pass 4
Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Italy's legendary Blue Team dominated the international bridge scene. They were invincible, and for good reason. Besides sophisticated bidding systems, the team included three of the all-time great players -- Giorgio Belladonna, Pietro Forquet and Benito Garozzo. Here's the latter at work on this deal from a European championship.
West took advantage of the vulnerability to make a weak two-heart opening bid with only a five-card suit. North's cue-bid showed spades and a minor suit and Garozzo knew which one. He was quite content to let the auction die at four spades.
West led the king of hearts, taken with dummy's ace. The queen of diamonds was overtaken with the king and the ace was cashed to discard dummy's heart loser. A trump to the jack and queen lost to the ace. East returned a heart, ruffed on the table.
Playing as if he could see all the cards, Garozzo came to hand with the queen of clubs, returned to dummy with a club to the ace and ruffed a club in hand. The jack of diamonds was cashed, declarer discarding dummy's low club, the jack of hearts was covered by the queen and ruffed on the table and the king of clubs was advanced. East, down to the 10 9 5 of trumps, was forced to ruff with the nine to prevent declarer from scoring the seven of trumps. But now East had to lead a trump away from the 10 5 and dummy's K 8 took the last two tricks. Making five-odd!
This column is written by Tannah Hirsch and Omar Sharif. For information about Charles Goren's newsletter for bridge players, call (800) 788-1225 or write Goren Bridge Letter, P.O. Box 4410, Chicago, Ill. 60680. Send e-mail to gorenbridge@aol.com.
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