Better to be Lucky than Good

In our second round Gold Cup match we scraped a single figure win against a team from London, helped by this rather fortunate slam deal.

Chris and Keith had stopped in game, so a lot of IMPs were riding on whether declarer could bring home his slam.  Declarer ran my club lead to the jack and ace, cashed a top spade, crossed to the ace of hearts and took a losing trump finesse. I exited with my last trump and declarer unblocked the king of hearts, crossed to the ace of diamonds, cashed the queen of hearts and returned to hand with a heart ruff. He then ran the remaining trumps, hoping to squeeze Ann in the minors. (The squeeze would also have worked if I held the king of diamonds and queen of clubs, but in that case I would probably have led a heart.) Unlucky for declarer.

Or was it? Go back to the bidding where North has shown a diamond control but South has denied one. Surely this suggests a diamond lead if West doesn't hold the king? And if Ann did hold the king of diamonds, I could have broken up the squeeze by returning a diamond when I won the queen of trumps. Given that I am likely to hold the king of diamonds, maybe declarer should play king of hearts, ace of clubs, queen of hearts throwing a club, club ruff and run the trumps to squeeze me in the red suits. But I don't mind being insulted if it means that we gain 13 IMP.

I think the best line is to win the opening lead in dummy and take an immediate trump finesse - better than cashing a top trump first as Qxxx is four times more likely than singleton queen. Then you can come down to a three card ending with ♥10 ♦Q ♣7 in hand and ♥AQ8 in dummy, winning if the hand with long hearts has either the king of diamonds or sole control of clubs. It's an easy game when you can see all four hands.