In this deal from the 2025 trials to decide the USA1 team for last year’s Bermuda Bowl, Steve Weinstein and Bobby Levin put up a stout defense against the no-trump game.
Levin, West, played declarer for short spades based on the bidding and tabled the spade ace in case South had a bare honor. Levin followed up with the spade five, a false-card. One would normally lead the highest of a remaining doubleton, but the defenders already knew the spade position, so why give declarer more information? Weinstein continued with a false-card of his own — he won with the spade queen and returned the 10, simulating an original Q-10-x.
These white lies turned out to have a devastating effect. Adam Grossack, the declarer, threw diamonds on the second and third spades and then successfully finessed the club jack. Next came the diamond king to East’s ace, and Weinstein kept up the pretense by returning a diamond rather than cashing the 13th spade. The club ace and king saw West discard a diamond, after which declarer had reached the crossroads. Should he clear clubs or bank on the hearts by cashing the ace and then finessing the jack? Grossack read the diamonds to be 5-2, in which case it would be safe to clear clubs — West had to have the spade jack. Such was not the case; Weinstein gratefully collected the trick and cashed the long spade for one down.
After a diamond lead and return in the other room, Nick Nickell simply worked on clubs and emerged with two overtricks.