"Nicely Played"

Playing in a national Open Pairs, our opponents are not at the table for the beginning of the round. They show up, looking sheepish, seven minutes into the 15-minute round. We say, "not to worry, we play fast." The first board is trivial and takes a minute or two. The second board isn't and takes longer.

I deal myself 86 K95 AQ963 K85. I open 1, and over partner's 1, rebid the obvious 1NT. Partner bids 2, which we play as an artificial game force. I could rebid 2NT, but I see no good reason not to emphasize my good five-card suit, so I bid 3. Partner raises to 4 and I have a bidding problem. I think we are more or less committed to slam now; 3NT is surely playable. My hand has sterile shape, but the high card structure seems suitable for a high-level contract, so I keep the ball rolling with 4. Partner ends proceedings with 6NT, and I wonder if this bidding made any sense.

Answer: not really. The opening lead is the 7. Dummy's shape is also sterile, but at least we have lots of aces and kings. That's not the same as lots of tricks, though.

	AQ1054 AJ6 K85 A10

	86 K95 AQ963 K85

Declarer	Dummy
1	1
1NT	2
3	4
4	6NT

Assuming I can bring in the diamonds, I have one spade, two hearts, five diamonds, and two clubs, for ten tricks. I don't like that

7. If it's shortness, I'm going to need the heart finesse and a black suit squeeze, which doesn't feel real likely. I'll need to rectify the count, and maybe it's an honest fourth best (yeah, right), so I insert the

10 from dummy. Wonder of wonders, it holds. Maybe spades are 3-3 onside...in that case, I don't even need to bring home diamonds. I cross to the

A and take another spade finesse, which wins. LHO obligingly plays the

9 rather than the card he was known to hold, so when RHO follows, I know spades are 4-2. If diamonds come home, I'm up to twelve tricks. Maybe partner's bidding wasn't so bad after all. Let's see what's going on in diamonds. I cash the

K, and everyone follows. Mike Flader (a national tournament director) is hovering; we are now one minute into the next round. I look at him, and he just nods, suggesting that he knows the opponents arrived late and I'm to carry on.

I have twelve tricks right now. I can take the heart hook for the overtrick, but I won't do that, because if the finesse is working, I don't need to take it. LHO will be squeezed on the run of the minor suit winners, so I'll be able to drop a doubleton Q offside. I don't think that's real likely, though. If LHO had five hearts, he'd've led one at trick one. Let's run a few more tricks and see what happens. I can always fall back on that line later. I cash the A and RHO pitches a heart, as do I. I play another diamond, and RHO shows out, pitching a club. One more diamond gets a heart from LHO and a club from RHO, as I shuck a spade from dummy. The position is now

	5 AJ6 — A10

	— K9 3 K85

LHO had seven diamonds and spades and RHO only four. A priori, that means that RHO is 9-6 to hold the

Q. Their discards have not suggested that RHO doesn't have it, so I'm going to play him for it. I cross to the

A, come back to the

K, and cash the last diamond. If RHO has the

Q, I'll have a double squeeze around clubs for the overtrick. The opponents struggle with their discards on the last diamond, each pitching clubs reluctantly, and as RHO does have the

Q, I make all thirteen tricks for a fine score.

We are three minutes into the next round as I hand the score slip to the opponents to sign. Flader murmurs to me, "nicely played," as he hurries them along to the next table.