Fraud at Grand Slam level

Have a look at this hand, from the 2007 Venice Cup.

Dealer: East. Both vul.

          NORTH
          ♠ AKQ983
          ♥ A7
          ♦ —
          ♣ AJ732
WEST                EAST
♠ J5                ♠ 764
♥ K843              ♥ JT952
♦ AT763             ♦ KJ98
♣ 64                ♣ K
          SOUTH
          ♠ T2
          ♥ Q6
          ♦ Q542
          ♣ QT985

WEST  NORTH EAST  SOUTH
            Pass  Pass
Pass  1C    Pass  1D   1C=16+ 1D=neg
Pass  2S    Pass  2NT
Pass  3C    Pass  4C
Pass  5NT   Pass  7C
All pass

Playing Precision, the 1C opening was artificial and strong, while the 1D response was the artificial negative. North showed spades and clubs, then jumped to 5NT “grand slam force”, asking South to bid grand slam with good trumps else sign off in 6C. With limited room to move, South took a stab at the grand.

You are West and your partner leads the HJ on which dummy's HQ is played. How do you proceed?

With the spade suit running, the success of the contract depends upon capturing the CK. With ten cards in a suit, missing the king, the optimum play is the finesse, providing a 50% chance of success. This time, of course, the finesse would fail.

Declarer, of course, does not know that and would dearly love to get to dummy to take the finesse, but dummy is entryless! Thus it appears that declarer will be forced into the winning play, banging down the CA (thereby felling the king) for want of an alternative.

England's Michelle Brunner, sitting West, quickly evaluated the situation, realising there was a chance that East had the CK as North’s 5NT asking about partner’s trumps indicated that was North’s only concern. Therefore when the HQ was played to the first trick, West smoothly ducked.

This offered declarer the entry to dummy that she thought she wanted, and she accepted it with an eagerness that had not been seen since the Trojans fell in love with a wooden horse and wheeled it into their town. Only after she finessed in clubs, losing to the singleton king, did she regret her “good fortune” in having been afforded that entry to dummy.