Board 19 from Tuesday 21/03/23 gave a number of Norths an unexpected and unwelcome shock when they played in an excellent 6S slam.
Board 19 Dealer South EW Vul
The best, and unbeatable, slam for NS is 6NT played by SOUTH. That is, before we see all the hands. In the bidding, North is likely to show a 5+ card spade suit and only one ace, which is most likely to be the ace of spades. Hence, a heart lead through the king is not going to be a welcome sight. But, be that as it may, what is really interesting is the play in 6S. The bidding of course could be a pointer: when South opens 1D, would West bid some number of hearts, or judiciously stay quiet? Vulnerable against not makes a heart overcall at any level somewhat risky, especially if partner gets excited by your vulnerable vs not overall. But most bridge players these days pay little attention to vulnerability and West could well jump in with either 2H or 3H. I do believe that after this interference by West, the end result should be 6NT by South, protecting against the obvious heart lead or even a heart ruff . But let’s look at all the 6S contracts. All Norths received the lead of the queen of hearts. All Norths but one were down after the first two tricks, when dummy’s king was won by West’s ace and the return saw East ruff. Bad luck. One North received the same lead and made the slam, West having bid 3H! It was clear that East’s queen was a singleton, so declarer ducked! East had to switch, while West wondered why East did not continue. East was left wondering why West had not taken the ace and given him a ruff. The divorce proceedings are still ongoing! The moral of the story: telling opponents about a long and very weak suit can only help them.
Another thought. In a freely bid 6S by North, given the queen of hearts lead, would North still play the same way? I suspect not, but then again, in a high level comp, East would not have led the queen from a doubleton Qx against a freely bid slam, would he? An equally good West would draw the correct conclusion and when declarer ducked, ask himself WHY did declarer duck. Don’t do what declarer wants you to do, so the answer is: Win the ace and give partner the ruff she wants, it has to be a singleton queen!
AKJ93
JT2
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K965