| West | North | East | South |
| 1♣ | Pass | ||
| 1♥ | Pass | 1♠ | Pass |
| Pass | Dbl | Pass | 1NT |
| 2♦ | Dbl | 2♠ | 2NT |
| Pass | 3NT | All Pass |
The late Sam Gold was one of Canada’s top players until his death in 1982. This deal comes from an intercity match between Montreal and New York won by the Canadians. Gold helped the team to a big gain.
The match was played on the Bridge-O-Rama, the vugraph of that day, and commentators, on seeing all four hands, explained that Gold could make the contract only if he “never put a foot wrong.” He didn’t.
West led a low spade, taken in dummy perforce, and Gold made his first good play – a low diamond away from the king. East’s ace began to confirm Gold’s picture of the opposing hands.
East returned the ♠J to Gold’s queen. He then ran the ♦10 and played a diamond to dummy’s king as East discarded two clubs.
From West’s bidding, Gold deduced that East held only one heart, so he cashed dummy’s ♥A before returning to his hand with the ♣K. When Gold cashed the ♦Q, East discarded another club.
Finally, Gold played the nine of spades from hand, putting East on lead. East could cash two more spade tricks but then had to lead into dummy’s ♣A J for the game-going tricks. Note that on the lie of the cards, the ♠7 would also have done the trick. West could win and cash the ♦J, but he would have to surrender a ninth trick to Gold’s ♥Q.
The full deal: