Column 7B01 (4-8-84) by Richard Pavlicek

Slam Creates Big Swing

Today’s deal is from an early round of the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams. The North-South pairs of both teams reached an ultra-sound contract of six spades. (One would want to be in seven spades looking at the North-South hands alone.)

6 by South

Both Vul	K J 8 5 A J 5 4 3 Q 8 2 A
2 9 6 J 9 7 5 Q J 8 7 6 3		10 9 7 4 Q 10 8 7 10 K 10 9 4
Lead: Q	A Q 6 3 K 2 A K 6 4 3 5 2

West Pass Pass Pass All Pass

North 1 3 5

East Pass Pass Dbl

South 1 1 4 6

The bidding shown occurred at table one. Perhaps South was too quick in jumping to six spades, but it was a wise stop; the foul distribution of the East-West hands would foil any grand slam.

West led the club queen and declarer drew two rounds of trumps with the jack and queen to disclose the four-one break. A club was ruffed in dummy; the spade king was cashed; then South returned to his hand with the heart king to draw the outstanding trump. This line of play would have been proper in a contract of seven spades, but now South was in trouble. With the diamonds four-one and the heart finesse offside, declarer could win only 11 tricks. Down one in six spades was not a pleasing result on a hand that looked cold for seven at the outset.

In the replay at table two the play began in similar fashion: club lead; spade jack; spade queen. But this declarer was more experienced and played with greater care. The diamond queen and both top hearts were cashed, followed by a low diamond from dummy. If East chose to ruff this, he would be ruffing a loser and declarer would easily win the rest. Therefore, East discarded a club and South won the diamond king. A club was ruffed in dummy and another diamond was led. Faced with the same predicament, East again discarded and South won the diamond ace. A diamond was ruffed with the spade king and declarer could not be prevented from winning two more tricks with his remaining ace-six in spades. The well-played slam came home and there was nothing East could have done to prevent it.