Back again

Just to get back to posting, here is a recent slam.

Love all, dlr S (hands rotated)

♠ A Q
♥ A 3
♦ A J 3 2
♣ K 10 7 3 2

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♠ K 6 3
♥ K Q 9 6 4
♦ 10 9 7
♣ A Q

1♥  Pass 2♣  Pass
2NT Pass 6NT All Pass

9♠ led.

6NT was perhaps a little over-enthusiastic, but we hadn’t been holding many cards so partner was excited to have so much. Truthfully, 3NT seems a little pusillanimous, and if she bid 4NT, I would have raised to 6NT anyway, so perhaps it was best to just get the auction over.

The play was fairly routine, although it seems that hardly anybody made twelve tricks. There are ten top tricks, and clubs, diamonds and hearts all provide chances of developing the two others needed. I don’t know how to calculate the odds, since it seems to me that the various distributions are not independent, but I would say my chances have to be distinctly better than 50%, given that the spade lead hasn’t damaged my communications. I took the A♠, the AQ♣, and passed the 10♦ to the Q♦. A second spade did no harm, but no other return is any better. I was able to cash the K♣, finding them 4-2 with the J♣ outstanding to my left, then try the AKQ♥, finding them 4-2 with the J♥ outstanding to my right. After the K♠, a second diamond finesse brought home two extra tricks, the honors being split and the suit breaking 3-3 (although if it had been breaking worse, the long cards would have been squeezed anyway). Repeated heart leads from the defence would have broken up the squeeze position, and left me with some difficult choices as to how to play, almost certainly going down. But a heart opening lead into my bid suit is too much to ask of any defence.