SLAM HANDS ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS...............SAYS JOHNNY SUPREMO

An old friend of mine told me about a hand when he ended up in 6D. The king of hearts was led.

Dummy came down with : AKJxx......xxx.........x..........A10xx

His hand as declarer was : xx...........Ax.......AKJ10xxx......Kx

With 11 tricks for certain, what was his best line to secure that elusive twelfth trick ? He figured there were four options :

• Do you take the first trick with the Ace and go for an early diamond finesse, knowing that if it loses the contract is one off ?
• Do you play the AK of diamonds hoping to see the queen fall, but still needing to see a 3-2 break if it doesn't ? Because then, if you take a successful spade finesse on the second round of the suit, you can pitch your losing heart on the third round of spades, quite content for any defender holding the outstanding diamond queen to ruff in.
• As above but instead of taking the spade finesse, do you play the AK of spades from the top ? Either the queen falls, or it can be ruffed out on the play of a low spade from dummy if the suit breaks 3-3. Now dummy can be entered with the Ace of clubs for the heart discard on the established jack of spades.
• Or, if the opponents are known to be playing honest distributional signals, do you try your luck on clubs ? Lay down the king of clubs, and if an honour appears on your right and your LHO shows an odd number, complete the dropping of the RHO's doubleton QJ ( but only after cashing AK of diamonds before doing so ). If your LHO produces an honour with your RHO opponent showing an odd number, then it doesn't cost at all to lead up to the Ace of clubs in dummy after cashing AK of diamonds first. However if defenders indicate a 4-3 split in the club suit, it now requires declarer to revert back to a spade or diamond finesse.

Perhaps there are other possible lines, some of which include other variations to " combine " options, thereby increasing declarer's overall percentage chance of success. Who knows. Nevertheless, this is a very instructive hand requiring declarers to evaluate their options seriously, because nothing is worse than going off in a slam which can make on a more obvious but superior line.