Bringing home the slam

This deal sees you in a 6D contract, against which West has made the passive lead of a trump. What is your best play for the contract?

NORTH
♠ Q93
♥ AT965
♦ K43
♣ QJ

SOUTH (declarer)
♠ A4
♥ 3
♦ AQJT986
♣ A32

Declarer has a loser in spades and one in clubs. One possible way to avoid a club loser would be to cross to dummy and lead a club from there for a finesse, hoping East has the CK. Is there a better line of play?

Staking your slam on a 50% chance of survival is not what a doctor would call good odds. To be a good player you need to know how to finesse; to be a great player, you need to learn how not to. A possibility that is often overlooked is that of setting up a long suit. With an odd number of hearts (seven) out against you, the odds are 62% that they will divide evenly (4-3), in which case dummy’s last heart has potential to be a winner, providing a parking place for South to discard the spade loser from hand.

Setting up the hearts will require careful use of a valuable resource in North’s hand: entries. Win the diamond lead in hand (noting that East follows so the diamonds are dividing evenly, 2-1), then play a heart to the ace and then ruff a second round of hearts. Cross back to dummy with the DK then ruff another heart.

With the opponents both following suit to that third round of hearts, the contract is now safe – if declarer continues to play it right. Two more entries are needed to dummy, once to get over there to lead a fourth round of hearts, then to get back again to enjoy the last heart. Can you see how to get over?

Lead a low club towards dummy’s honours. Regardless of who has the CK, one of dummy’s club honours will be an entry. As it happens, West takes the CK (cheering news for declarer, as the club finesse would not have worked) and leads another club.

With the lead in dummy, declarer leads the fourth round of hearts and ruffs, so now dummy’s remaining heart is a winner. Where, though, is that vital last entry to dummy?

To get to dummy, declarer must lead the CA and ruff it! Then lead the heart, discarding the spade loser from hand, and claiming 12 tricks. This was the full deal:    

Contract: 6D by South

          NORTH
          ♠ Q93
          ♥ AT965
          ♦ K43
          ♣ QJ 
WEST                EAST 
♠ KT62              ♠ J875
♥ Q82               ♥ KJ74
♦ 72                ♦ 5
♣ KT94              ♣ 8765
          SOUTH
          ♠ A4
          ♥ 3
          ♦ AQJT986
          ♣ A32