Not Garozzo

Playing in a regional flight A pairs, we are having a great session (it will turn out to be 68%). I'm in second seat against stready performers and pick up a strong notrump. The bidding is simple and I see:

	92 K42 KQ4 Q10763

	AK4 A763 J75 A52

Declarer	Dummy
1NT	3NT
Pass

The opening lead is the

Q. Despite 26 HCP and a source of tricks, this hand is not cold. Since I don't expect to score more than ten tricks, I hold up at trick one. LHO continues with another high spade and I win. It seems obvious to attack clubs first, so I cash the

A. LHO drops the

K. That's interesting. It'd be a great play sometimes to drop the King from a doubleton, and in this case, it might convince me to attack another suit (it will), but LHO is not Garozzo, so I can assume that it is a true card. If so, I have eight tricks, two in each suit. For now, I need to avoid going down a bunch, so I must knock out the

A. I play a diamond to the King, which holds. It looks like opening leader has the Ace. I want him to take it right away; I'd prefer not to have three rounds of diamonds played, so I continue with the

Q from dummy. Surprisingly, RHO wins this (good), and continues with a third spade. It looks as if spades are 5-3, so I shall try to duck a heart to RHO. Maybe hearts are 3-3, so I'll have nine tricks. I lead the

3 from hand. LHO contributes the

5. Good! I duck from dummy, and RHO has to win. In practice, he wins the

J. That looks a little dire; I doubt very much he has three hearts exactly anymore.

RHO pauses only briefly and continues with the Q. That looks like an error, but we shall see. At least it means spades are 5-3. It also means I'm going to make the hand. I win in dummy and continue with another heart. RHO now thinks longer and pitches a club. I win the A, duck a club (yes, the K was singleton) and claim nine tricks. He had no successful play at this point, as the cards were:

	— 4 4 Q107
108 109 10 —		— — 96 J98
	— A7 J 52

On the heart lead, if he discards a diamond, I can simply cash the

J and duck a club, endplaying RHO for my ninth trick. Discarding a club makes it simpler; I can duck a club immediately, setting up the suit.

The defense was not perfect, but I can always make the hand if I guess correctly. If the defense continues diamonds, I have to cash two high hearts and duck a club. RHO can cash the thirteenth diamond, but then has to give me a third club trick for my contract. The same can happen if they duck two rounds of diamonds. I don't know if I would have got it right or not if they had made it hard on me, but I might have. At the point at which I thought the heart continuation was an error, I am sure I would have got it right; the fall of the QJ strongly suggests the actual lie of the suit.