Hand of the Week
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | 1♦ |
| 1NT | 2♦ | 3♣ | 3♥ |
| Pass | 3♠ | Pass | 5♦ |
| All Pass |
In this deal from the 1999 Forbo tournament in the Netherlands, Roselyn Teukolsky, former Bridge Bulletin columnist, demonstrated a route to success by employing the technique of stripping a hand perfectly. Teukolsky was South
West’s 1NT showed clubs and a major.
Most players would have chosen to double rather than overcall with the West cards. As it happens, the auction persuaded West to lead the ♣A – a small tip that allowed Teukolsky to make the contract by force despite the unfavorable heart position.
Declarer ruffed the club continuation at trick two, played off three rounds of spade, ruffing the third, then crossed to a top trump in dummy to ruff dummy’s last club.
At this point, she finally drew the last trump, ending in dummy. Now she led the ♥9 from dummy, covered by East with the 10. Teukolsky put on the jack. West won the ♥Q but was not a happy player.
A heart return would be from the K-5 into Teukolsky’s A-8, and the play of either black suit would allow declarer to discard a heart from dummy, followed by a crossruff for the rest of the tricks.
The full deal: