North-South vulnerable. South deals.
NORTH
S-Q 9 6 3
H-J 7 5 2
D-10 4
C-7 6 3
WEST EAST
S-A 10 8 7 S-4
H-Q 9 8 6 4 3 H-A K 10
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D-7 3 D-J 9 6
C-10 C-J 9 8 5 4 2
SOUTH
S-K J 5 2
H-Void
D-A K Q 8 5 2
C-A K Q
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
2C Pass 2D Pass
3D Pass 3NT Pass
4S Pass 5S Pass
6S Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: Six of H
For Tommy, the drought had broken. After months of flat hands, there had been a rash of bad trump breaks, allowing Tommy to demonstrate his peculiarity to metamorphose from a card pusher into a wizard on hands that would escape the average player.
On this example Tommy landed in a fair spade slam thanks to North judging that four trumps to the queen and a ruffing value in Tommy’s first-bid suit merited a raise. Tommy didn’t even look at his hand before bidding the slam.
Tommy ruffed the opening heart lead and immediately led the king of trumps — the presence of the nine in dummy made this the correct play. When West held up the ace, Tommy continued with the jack. As far as he was concerned, the outlook brightened when West rose with the ace and East discarded a club!
West reverted to a heart, and Tommy ruffed again. Since there was no hope for 12 tricks unless West held two or three diamonds, Tommy cashed the ace and king of the suit, then followed with the key play of one high club. When all that worked, the rest was simply mopping up. Tommy started running diamonds, and West had no counter.
With Q 9 of spades poised over West’s 10 8, if West ruffed, the table would overruff, draw the last trump with the queen and Tommy’s hand would be high, with the club serving as the entry. And if West never ruffed, declarer would discard all of dummy’s remaining hearts and clubs, in that order, on the diamonds, coming down to Q 9 of spades at the end. A club would then allow dummy to score the last two tricks.
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