Under Control

22nd March – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.
It would seem hard to imagine any route which would not take you to a grand slam on the hand shown below but as is the way of things it all seemed much harder at the table than away from it.


West
North
East
South
1C
No
2D
No
3C
No
4NT
No
5C
No
7C
End

The initial 2D response is game forcing of course and when opener rebids his suit this shows at least a six-carder. Why? Well with another four-card suit he would bid it and with a balanced 3-3-2-5 hand he would either have opened 1NT or be rebidding it. After wheeling out the Old Black North knows – should know – that all the key cards are present, for South would have an eight count at most if he had none! So North can now count twelve tricks even if South had no other useful card, which is why I favour 7C over 7NT. Just suppose opener had

Now 7NT is a trick short but 7C can be made by ruffing out the diamonds and establishing another trick there. However playing match-pointed pairs I would go for the higher score.

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