10 A962 AK105 AKQ2

3

1

Partner insists that 2/1s promise either a five-card suit or trump support. In his methods, a forcing 1NT is the systemic call with this hand. There is no way I'm bidding 1NT. If partner bids anything but 2, my next call will have to be 6NT. Bidding 1NT is planning to perpetrate a stupid auction, so I bid an anti-systemic 2. If worse comes to worst, I can always bid 6NT later. The opponents stay silent (rats!), and partner rebids 2. This doesn't promise six spades; it's how he'll continue on many minimum hands. I still want to know more about his hand and have no way to show mine, so I bid a semi-artificial and game forcing 2NT. It's semi-artificial because 3 isn't forcing, so I have to bid 2NT on some single-suited game forcing club hands.

Interestingly, partner now bids 3. Sounds like he has Jxx and a minimum hand. The minimum is no surprise.

I have no idea what to do now. I think I'll just bid slowly without a plan. I'd like to judge between 6 and 6NT; I don't see a good way to tell which is better, so I'll see what I can milk out of partner. So I bid 3. Partner bids 3NT. That suggests that he's 5323 or 5233, probably the former. If he had a sixth spade, he'd probably rebid them now. He could be 6313 with good hearts, but I doubt it; he might have raised clubs directly with a singleton. With a real dog, he'd've opened 2. No, I'm pretty sure he's balanced. I have some forcing bids left, so I try 4. Partner thinks about this a bit, as well he might, and emerges with 4. He has the A. Good. Can we make a grand? If he has  AKxxx KQx xx Jxx, which is more or less what he is likely to have, how's the grand? Not good. More importantly, 6NT is not cold, either; 6 is much better. All in all, it looks to me like 6NT is going down and 6 is a favorite. Even if 7 is making, I suspect making six will produce a huge swing, so I end the auction by jumping to 6.

LHO has no problem leading the Q and dummy hits:

	AK8652 K7 Q4 1084
	10 A962 AK105 AKQ2

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

6

The play has some catches. If trumps are 3-3, it's easy, but if not, I need to ruff two red cards in dummy. Entries will be a problem, so I can't afford even one round of trumps; after I have ruffed two red cards, how do I get back to hand? I'll need that third trump as an entry to hand. Moreover, I may have a problem in the end if I don't cash the spades immediately, so the first order of business is to win the K and cash two spades pitching a heart. That carries off fine. LHO drops the Q on the second spade, but he's seen me show out, so that doesn't mean anything. I need to ruff my losers next. I cross to the A and play a third heart. LHO plays the J on the third round. Since he doesn't know who has the heart spots, it looks safe to ruff low, but I might as well use the 8, which holds as RHO follows. Now the Q and another diamond to hand. I lead my 10 and LHO shows out, pitching a spade. There's no reason to ruff high, so I win the 4. Maybe I'll make seven after all. I lead the carefully-preserved last trump from dummy and draw three rounds of trump. LHO turns out to have four to the J, so at trick 12, I cash the K and claim twelve tricks.

The whole hand was

	AK8652 K7 Q4 1084
QJ74 QJ8 96 J753		93 10543 J8732 96
	10 A962 AK105 AKQ2

Why did the spades have to be cashed early in 6? If LHO had 3424 shape, in the four-card endposition:

	AK86 — — —
QJ J — J		963 — J —
	10 9 K 2

K

2