A Remarkable Hand


Q 7
K 5 4 2
K 7 6 2
A Q 9
J 8 5 4 2 10 9 6 3
Q J 10 9 3 ------
------ J 9 5
7 6 5 J 10 8 4 3 2
A K
A 8 7 6
A Q 10 8 4 3
KVul: No one

NorthEastSouthWest
1 2
2 3 4 Pass
5 Pass 5 Pass
5 NT Pass 7 All pass
NorthEastSouthWest
1 Dbl
Redbl All pass
This was an absolutely amazing hand, largely but not solely on the bidding and the misperceptions, or if you prefer, questionable judgment, displayed. It surfaced during the much touted Soloway-Goldman match, and the first bidding sequence above is theirs. One can only congratulate them on the ability to smoke out the grand slam (without any form of Blackwood), while sadly noting that a highly unlikely distributional pattern did them in, while 7 no was cold, which is rather like saying the operation was a success but the patient died. (Some people made 7 diamonds when the North hand played it on a bidding sequence starting with 2 clubs by South, 2 diamonds by North.)
Well, it's there. The quick ruff on an eight-card holding is hardly to be expected, but I did list as one of the reasons no trump slams -- if feasible -- were better than trump slams, i.e., that you don't have any worry about a quick ruff on a distribution you have no way of smoking out. Aside from the extra points particularly valuable in matchpoints, two other advantages are that you can cash your winners as you come to them (not always an option in a trump contract) and that if your flagship suit doesn't pan out, you can often, certainly not always, switch to another suit to collect your winners, which you can't do if that suit is trump.
I can congratulate them for smoking out the grand slam, as mentioned above, but I can find no rhyme or reason for the denomination. If diamonds are going to run, as they must if you name the suit trump, South can count 11 winners (we're assuming that the ace of clubs isn't stiff). If North doesn't have the king of hearts, he'd better have a singleton, or they'll have a heart loser, and I suspect the king of hearts was inherent in one of North's bids, which brings us to twelve. Either you're going to have to have a queen in there for a 13th trick, or you're going to have to find North with a doubleton king of hearts (in a diamond contract), and it seems to me that since the queen can be in any suit, you're asking a lot less of the cards to expect that than a king doubleton specifically in hearts.
Here the queen of spades is useless because there aren't enough guards to it, of course. But the queen of clubs is what saves the grand for a nifty score.
There are, to be sure, some reasons for not bidding a no trump slam. Now that I've opened this entry up to illustrations, I'll be on the lookout for some touch-and-go illustrations.

As for the second bidding sequence above, I have no recollection of it and see that I didn't make any reference to it the first time I typed this up. But I'm quite certain I didn't make it up, that it took place and that the score was astronomical. Whether an opening heart lead was found or not is academic. That's only a question of 5 overtricks or 6. But wait! I spoke too soon. Not vul, the score wouldn't be all that astronomical. Six overtricks would only bring in 1200. There'd be no game bonus, no slam bonus. Only 100 for making a redoubled contract and 80 points for the trick score. 1380. And on a heart lead, 1180. But vulnerable, that would mean an astronomical score, beating a grand slam.
Now wait a minute. I spoke too soon again. Vulnerable redoubled overtricks are worth 400 a pop. So six overtricks would mean 2400, beating any (undoubled) grand slam. But 5 overtricks would only mean 2000 plus that 180, or less than a no trump grand slam (2220), but more than a diamond grand slam (2140). Oh me.