Thrills and Spills

Clearly, much work needs to be done on the most basic declarer play if the following deal is anything to go by.

Board 22 from Wednesday 26th July. Dealer E EW Vul

K953
T942
2
QJ87
QJT8
AKQ83
J63
9
A6
J76
AKQT8
AKT
742
5
9754
65432

Few bridge experiences can be as thrilling as bidding a grand slam, and nothing can be as deflating as failing to make thirteen obvious tricks. Bidding the EW hands to 7NT is not all that easy, but bidding to 6H or 6NT should be. So should making thirteen tricks be. But horror of horrors, three out of seven declarers at the Hutt club did manage to make thirteen tricks but other four did not. I simply cannot understand why there was a problem.

In the diamond suit, there are five absolutely certain tricks no matter what the opposition have. After the jack is played, the other cards are all top cards. In the HEART suit, after the jack is played and both opponents follow suit, the ace, king and queen are certain tricks and if declarer can count to thirteen, the eight is the fifth trick in the suit. This should be obvious after the very first round of hearts: after the jack is played and both opponents follow suit, there are only THREE cards left with NS, so the final
heart will be good. You should learn to work that out the moment the jack is followed to by both opponents. With five tricks in each red suit, plus the AK of clubs and the ace of spades, that adds up to thirteen, just playing off all your tricks in a sensible order.

Incidentally, that order SHOULD normally be starting with the honour card or cards in the hand that has FEWER cards in the suit, which ensures that you never block a suit. Surely nobody could have played the red suits from the TOP. So where did the tricks disappear?

I don't know how the bidding might go on a Wednesday, but most competent pairs would bid to at least 6H. Sadly, only three slams were bid and the two declarers in 6H and 6NT both failed to take even TWELVE tricks. Why, I may never know. Congratulations to the one EW pair who bid AND made 7NT.