ANSWERS — Cornucopia #2

Against four spades, a major-suit lead would be fatal, as it would provide a key entry for holding the trump losers to one.  On a minor-suit lead, declarer plays off the three aces in hand, then leads a low club.  West has several unattractive choices:

• Return a club.  It does not avail east to ruff a loser, so the club queen wins.  A fourth round of clubs is ruffed in dummy.  East scores two trump tricks, and west a club, but that is all.
• Switch to a heart.  Dummy wins; then a trump lead holds the losers to one spade and two clubs.
• Lead a low diamond.  Same as above, but now both club losers disappear.  Making five.
• Try the diamond king.  Declarer ruffs, then plays the king and another spade.  After winning two trump tricks, east has to feed the dummy as declarer dumps his remaining low clubs.

Not one pair bid to this virtually laydown grand slam.  Sitting north, I missed a call that cost us.  After partner's 4♣ splinter bid, I simply leapt to 6♠.  Had I not been so hasty, however, a cuebid by me would have elicited 5♣ from partner, after which a follow-up of 7♠ would have been obvious.

Justice was not adequately served, however, because only three of twenty-six pairs bid any slam at all!  So our +1460 was worth 24 of 25 matchpoints.

• North:  3 demerits for bidding 4♥, when 3♥ was unconditionally forcing.  Also, partner has not promised a 4-card heart suit; in this case, he was simply probing for 3NT.
• West:  3 demerits for making a takeout double with such a disparity in the quality of his two suits.
• West:  4 demerits for a silly lead.  Partner would need the diamond ace and another quick entry for this play to be profitable.  Moreover, the bidding suggested that the opponents were lacking a spade stopper, making that suit the standout choice of opening leads.
• South:  1 demerit for being greedy.  5♦ figured to be a reasonable contract, but if partner had, say, ♠Kx and running diamonds, then the heart game rated to make as long as LHO had only 3-4 trumps.
• East:  4 demerits for covering the diamond ten.  This idiotic play would have been fatal had not the club suit been able to run; but even at that, declarer would have had to find the club queen.

Worst Play:  It's close between west's double and his rotten opening lead.  I give the nod to the takeout double; for had he chosen to bid 2♠, partner could have raised, making the killing spade lead easier to find.  Even 3♥ could have been defeated had the opponents led from their strength.  This is a good example of the Wrong Stuff Coup  in action.

My partner, feeling that there was room in my hand for a queen, tried to find it with a diamond lead.  Making four.  Chip Martel led a low club.  Down two, with the aid of a club ruff.

I agree completely with the champ's choice; my hand did not rate to have as much as a queen, and as you can see, it wasn't needed anyway.  Arguably, the diamond would be a better lead against a lower-level contract.

Against 4♠, your LHO leads the king and ace of diamonds.

On a double-dummy basis, the only winning defense is for west to advance her singleton trump at trick two.  By later ducking the first lead of hearts, you would be held to six spade tricks, one heart, and two clubs.

Having been given this reprieve, you ruff the diamond and lead a heart.  It really doesn't matter what west does, but at your table she grabs the ♥A and shifts to a club.

Winning the ♣A, a top heart is cashed; the crafty opponents play the deuce and jack.  One obvious line is to try to cash another heart, then lead dummy's spade jack, hoping to pin west's singleton nine or queen.  That play looks dangerous, but further thought reveals that if RHO is indeed 4-4-2-3, you cannot prevail.

So concluding, you play east for his actual pattern, in which case you don't even need another heart trick!  Opting for the most elegant line, you ruff another diamond, then play the ♣K and ruff a club, to this position:

Dummy's diamond is ruffed low as east can do no better than to discard his last club.  Now the lead of the ♠A followed by the ♠8 endplays RHO in trumps.  As your opponents failed to bid this 'wonderful' game, you pick up 10 imp on the board.

Unfortunately, you are not destined to win this or any subsequent match in this event.  Oh, well — at least you have one good story to tell when you get home.