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A FINE SLAM - A FINE PLAY....

Hand played on	15/11/2012 (Windmill Trophy)
Board number	18
Dealer	East
Vulnerability	North / South vulnerable
Submitted by	Frank Morrison

The Hands

	North ♠Q972 ♥AKT654 ♦- ♣742
West ♠JT5 ♥- ♦J73 ♣KQT9653		East ♠K64 ♥QJ9872 ♦T65 ♣8		The Bidding
	South ♠A83 ♥3 ♦AKQ9842 ♣AJ			North 4♥	East 2♦¹ No	South x 6NT	West No ² End
Notes A 3-way Multi 2♦ opening, here showing 6-10 HCPs, with a 6-card major West would bid 2♥ if the hand was prepared to play in 2♥ or 2♠ opposite a weak 2 of a major Frank's comments When Paul jumped to 4♥ over my double I assumed he had some high cards in hearts, and having nine tricks in my own hand, 6NT had a shout, so I bid it. West led the ♣Q - a lead that had an element of ambiguity about it; I asked East about the lead style, and his answer was that the lead of a Queen asked for an inverse attitude signal, but it could be led from KQ or QJ. This answer made me place West with the ♣K. Dummy was a bit of a disappointment, with a diamond void - the odds were that they were going to split 4-2, especially after the 2♦ opening by East. The only hope with a 4-2 break would be to find the Jack, Ten falling doubleton. The first trick was taken in hand, and all was well when both defenders followed to three rounds of diamonds. With West having ♣KQ, I had two ways of playing the hand: if West had the ♠K, I could strip-squeeze West and throw him in with a club at trick 11 to lead away from the ♠K. However that would mean that East had opened 2♦ with ♥QJ, plus, possibly, the ♠J, as his only high cards, so I placed him with the ♠K. It did not matter if he had 6 spades or 6 hearts for his bid of 2♦ as long as he had ♠K and ♥QJ. If he had 6 spades, the ♥QJ might fall in two rounds giving me three heart tricks; if not I could throw him in. When I cashed all my diamonds, it became obvious East had started with a 3631 hand. The 5-card ending was:
	North ♠Q9 ♥AKT ♦- ♣-
West ♠JT5 ♥- ♦- ♣KT		East ♠K6 ♥QJ9 ♦- ♣-
	South ♠A83 ♥3 ♦- ♣J
The top two hearts were cashed, and East was thrown in with the third heart, and forced to lead away from the ♠K. East could have kept two small hearts to accompany the QJ by baring the ♠K, and then the throw-in obviously would doom the contract. However, having already worked out the lie of the top spades, after the two hearts, if neither the ♥Q or ♥J had appeared from East, Declarer would leave Dummy by playing the small spade to the Ace, felling the (now) singleton King en route, and the ♠Q still provides the 12th trick.