No Trump Slams --II

(1) In matchpoint scoring, no trump slams will mean more points than a trump slam -- points you're going to want to go for if you like to come in first. On a lot of these powerful hands where, of course, you have all suits stopped by high cards, you'll find you can make the same number of tricks in either no trump or that dominant suit. Indeed, the hand will often be played the same way, whichever denomination you're in, so you might as well pick up the extra 10 points (over a major, 70 over a minor in little slam).

A J 5
K J 7
A 6 4 2
A 5 3
K Q 9 8 3 2
A Q 6 4
7 3
2

Obviously South would have 12 top winners in either spades or no trump, and the hand would be played substantially the same way in either denomination. The only difference is that in spades, that suit must be cleared before the heart winners are cashed, a necessity of no particular importance here, but which on some hands will be declarer's undoing, as will be discussed in a few moments.
Recently I took note of a hand where N-S made nary a bid during the auction and took nary a trick during the play and yet wound up with 9 matchpoints out of a possible 12! The reason for this was that their opponents played in 7 diamonds when half the field was finding the superior 7 no contract. Duplicate is like that. It says in effect, you were granted those high cards through no particular merit of your own, so you're not going to get a good score just for cashing out top winners, just as conversely, you aren't necessarily saddled with a low score for getting poor cards. You've got to find the bids (and play) most productive of points for the potential you were granted.
(2) In no trump, a winner is a winner that no one can take away from you, and if you have your 12 or 13 top winners, then you have your slam. When I mentioned to my partner after a diamond grand that I had considered no trump, the woman on my right sneered at such a consideration as an extra 10 points. It was an IMP event and in fact 10 extra points wouldn't have meant anything had it been true. But she was wrong about the scoring, since it would have meant 80 more points (though I agree that in IMP scoring, this is trivial compared to the value of a grand slam) and she was wrong about my motivation for considering no trump. The extra points are, yes, sometimes the primary consideration in matchpoint scoring, but I'm just getting started. There are several other reasons why a no trump slam might do you better than a trump slam.
The first is probably well known to every novice, that the opponents can get a quick ruff:

K J 6 5
8 7 3
A Q 7
K 8 3
9 8 4
4 A J 10 9 6 5 2
10 9 6 2 8 3
10 9 6 5 4 2 Q J 7 West North East South
A Q 10 7 3 2 1 2 * 2
K Q Pass 3 Pass 4 NT
K J 5 4 Pass 5 Pass 6
A All pass * Weak

On the bidding, East figures to hold an ace, so West led the same card he would have led had his partner not bid. When you hold at least two trump and a singleton, you have a fair chance of a ruff if your partner holds an ace in either your suit or trump. Here declarer could well have wished it was the trump ace he was missing. For if he could have won the opening lead, he would have unblocked clubs, gone to dummy with a diamond and discarded a heart on the king of clubs before touching trump, where he clearly has enough to ruff high on a heart lead.
But it wasn't the trump ace he was missing and he was completely helpless on the heart lead and return. Down one when 6 no was cold. So much for scorning "ten extra points". "Wait a minute! We're looking at the stiff ace of clubs, which looks like a pretty sound control in a spade contract. In no trump, however, suppose the opponents don't lead a heart as expected, but a club and my partner doesn't have the king! I'm left high and dry for my twelfth trick!"
First it must be made clear that we're not talking about certainties. We're talking about the advantages of no trump, something to give play to in your mind before deciding. We never really know what our partner is going to give us until dummy comes down and we see where his hcp's lie and the distribution of the hand. Naturally, since we're bidding with closed hands, there are bound to be times when we reach for an advantage that turns out to be a puff of smoke. Our goal should be to distinguish those times when the advantage is real with ever-increasing skill, to do so better than those other guys, even if only a little better, and not try to reach some never-never land where no mistakes are made.
One more case:

K
Q J 10 8 6 5 4
A K 6 4
9
West North East South
A 9 7 1 Pass 2
A K Pass 3 Pass 4 NT
Q 10 7 5 2 3 Pass 5 Pass 6 NT All pass
K Q 6

North was complaining even before his cards had been fully tabled: "You didn't give me a chance to show how long my suit is!" he whined. After surveying dummy, South merely asked rhetorically, "Can I use your long suit in a no trump contract or not?"
Obviously, nothing -- that's nothing -- could stop 6 no on the above 26 cards, while a quick ruff in hearts or diamonds could beat a suit slam. I grant that there was no such void here and indeed that it wasn't even a matchpoint event. So there was no advantage to the no trump slam. But one of these days there will be, and then it might be a very big advantage.
"Wait a minute!" cries the skeptical reader again. Suppose South finds his partner with the ace of clubs instead of diamonds, and the king of spades is, well, the queen! Now you can run only 11 winners on a spade opening lead where 6 hearts would have been safe!" The argument I suppose has some validity, and yet . . .
You have to make two changes to the North hand to make 6 no a non-productive bid, and if you play that sort of game, I don't know how many bids would survive. Further, how safe are the suit slams under those conditions? You're missing the ace of diamonds now. If you're in a heart slam, it only takes a 3-1 diamond split to defeat the contract, and if you're in a diamond slam, it only takes a 3-1 heart break to beat that contract. Well, yes, there are a few other conditions you can work out. But the point here is that you're not going to get certainty. You can show that just about any bid will fail if the cards are exactly wrong, or any aggressive bid will work if the cards are exactly right and I can only say that neither attitude is advised. But ultimately you'll have to decide that for yourself.

(3) No trump allows you to cash winners when you choose. It not infrequently happens in a suit contract that the trump suit, coupled with entry problems, prevents this simple procedure:

K 5
9 7 5
6 5
A K Q 8 6 3
A Q J 8 6 4
A K
A 8 7 4
7

Despite the dominant spades and the skimpy diamond stopper, no trump would serve you far better here than a spade contract. Oh, you'll probably make 6 spades 90% of the time on these cards, for you can almost see the opposition coming through with a diamond attack, and now you have clear sailing. But one of those guys sitting West is going to pull the "wrong" card and come out with a club, and now where are you?
You can't draw all trump and then cash the clubs, since you won't have an entry then. You can take two rounds of trump ending in dummy, hoping clubs are either 3-3, or the long clubs are with the long trump. Worse, in a way, is that you have other options which, if a losing line, your partner will doubtless be pleased to tell you should have been obvious as such. You could play for the likeliest break of 4-2 clubs and 3-2 spades, playing ace, then losing a diamond at trick two, subsequently ruffing a diamond high, cashing (you hope) a second club winner, and then drawing trump and out.
But balancing all that against the luxury of cashing three club winners when you choose should highlight one of the attractions of no trump slams. Only a highly unlikely 5-0 spade break could hurt you.

Continued in Part III.