Too Difficult

19th January – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

I think most pairs found themselves in a slam on the featured hand and were probably sorry not to have gone the whole way when the spade finesse works – not that you want to be in a grand slam on a finesse of course. A straightforward approach cuts out any possibility of a misunderstanding I suppose and the auction shown below has the merit of simplicity.

West	North	East	South
		No	1H
No	4NT	No	5S
No	5NT	No	6D
No	6H	End

Once South shows the two missing aces and the queen of hearts North can ask for any outside kings and the usual arrangement is to respond on a step sequence. However if South had held the king of spades and not clubs the grand would have been laydown but that depends on South holding the queen of diamonds too. Try as I might I cannot find a convincing sequence which would allow the grand to be bid if South had held a more useful king. Somethings are just too difficult.