Fantastic


A 7 6 4
------
K Q 10 8 5 2
A K 5
Q J 10 3 9
J 10 6 5 3 9 8 2
J 9 A 7 6 3
J 10 Q 8 6 4 2
K 8 5 2
A K Q 7 4
4
9 7 3 Vul: E-W

SouthWestNorthEast
1 Pass 2 Pass
2 Pass 3 Pass
4 Pass 5 Pass
5 Pass 6 Pass
Pass Dbl Pass Pass
6 NT Dbl All pass

An incredible hand in light of what I'd just been discussing. There was first the matter of choosing a no trump slam over the 4-4 spade slam. How does each half of a pair fathom that his partner has only one top honor and spots, and that 6 spades couldn't even be made on a 3-2 spade split. I had just said that I'd probably go for the suit slam on a known major suit fit unless I could just about count the points or the tricks in no trump, and I don't know how I could expect anyone to see that no trump would work better, nor that I necessarily would have.
Could I point to the fact that spade suit was each partner's second suit, as opposed to one diamond, one spade, 4 spades? Even the partner who was bidding spades as a "second suit" was clearly showing a suit she liked but (probably) had only 4 of. I don't know how to point to the no trump slam except to say . . .
It's an awfully lucky slam, and I suspect that in my usual bidding methods, I wouldn't be there in the first place, nor would I feel ashamed of missing this one. West has to hold both the jack and nine of diamonds on that distribution. Give East just the 9 in place of the 3, or for that matter, switch dummy's 8 with the 7 -- cards that can hardly be determined in the bidding -- and there is no slam there. "Let's not miss the easy ones," I said regarding yesterday's hand, and this I do not consider an easy and obvious slam potential.
Indeed, when I counted the hcp's, I found 28! Just a few days ago, I presented a 28-hcp no trump game that couldn't be made against best defense, during which I referred to a 28-hcp laydown grand slam. Here you need no finesses. Everything just falls into your lap, and those aren't the slams I feel any remorse about missing.
Three people made slam in diamonds and 2 in no trump, one doubled. The following day, I got to thinking, "Did somebody foolishly double 6 spades?" And my answer is given above. The other pair in no trump had bid it without either partner mentioning spades! But this doubler will doubtless go a long time before he makes a more expensive double. Let's see: down 2 undoubled would have been a mere 100 points, while the opps actually picked up 1230 points for a swing of 1330 points. The IMP swing was from 6.40 to minus 13.73 a swing of more than 20! I don't think he'll beat that by any double soon.
I might add just one little tidbit. West can't know his partner has the ace of diamonds. So from his viewpoint, the double only figures to increase his side's score by 50 points! A trivial sum when you figure to beat a slam if they'll just stay in spades.