Some hands offer many different chances to succeed. Here is a
beauty where declarer played very carefully to bring in his slam.
Scoring: IMPs (Team Game)
Hand #14
Dlr
E
Vul
N/S
J6
J3
AQ1032
A962
10982
52
J875
QJ4
743
K10987
964
105
AKQ5
AQ64
K
K873
West
North
East
South
Pass
2NT
Pass
6NT
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
BIDDING: Holding a singleton diamond, South's bid won't be
to everyone's taste but he did have 21 high card points. North
did the math, added a point for his 5th diamond, and confidently raised
to six.
PLAY: West led the ten
of spades and declarer stopped to count his tricks: 4 spades, 1 heart,
3 diamonds, and 2 clubs. Additional tricks could come from a
successful heart finesse, the diamond jack dropping, or a 3-2 club
break. He had few entries to dummy so he had to be very careful
as he attempted to find the two extra tricks. First he won the
spade lead in his hand. Next he cashed the diamond king followed
by king and a low club won by West's jack. Declarer now had
eleven tricks. The spade continuation was won in dummy followed
by the ace and queen of diamonds. When the jack did not drop,
declarer led a low heart, closed his eyes, and played the queen from
his hand. That was twelve tricks and and ten IMPs when the
opposing team failed to bid the slam.
There are several lessons here. First, slow down and count your
tricks. Playing too quickly to trick one is a frequent
mistake. Next, make sure you use your entries in the correct
order. And finally, it's usually best to exhaust all other
options before resorting to a finesse.
