REBECCA
ROOD'S
MAILBAG
......
......
......
Dear Rebecca ,
Please find the
enclosed hand ,
where my idiot
partner propelled
me into 7NT : a
contract that was doomed to fail no matter what. Although the major suit honours were well place ( 5 tricks there at most ) , the distribution of the adverse minor suit holdings was such that only another 6 tricks could be harvested . I was livid but then some know-all in the bar claimed the grand slam was cold.
Was this smart-arse correct in his assessment ?
Yours feeling mighty peeved , Ann Greer

Dear Ann ,
I hate to tell you this , but on the layout of the cards the grand slam is a simple make . A near identical hand appeared in George Coffin's wonderful book " Endplays ", where all 13 tricks come rolling in by means of a Triple-Double Automatic Repeating Squeeze . 

On the fortuitous spade lead , declarer must allow it to run to his 7, and then proceed to finesse the queen of spades , immediately followed by the Ace ( 3 tricks so far ) . Next comes the Ace and Queen of clubs , followed by the Ace and Queen of diamonds ( 7 tricks in the bag ).
By now , West has come down to :   K.......KJ6.......J8....void 
                            with East holding :  void...9875...void....J10 
So when Declarer plays both his Kings ......it doesn't matter in which order......both defenders are squeezed. West has to keep the king of spades and the winning diamond , therefore forced to bare the KJ of hearts. East in order to keep his winning club , must part with one of his four hearts .
Meanwhile , North retains all four of his hearts. At the end , declarer's play of his small heart , finessing West ,  easily harvests the last 4 tricks. Grand slam made.   

So yes ....the smart-arse in the bar was correct.....but isn't that always the case when he turns out to be the one and only Johnny Supremo .  

Yours still smirking at your misfortune , Rebecca Rood