The auction requires a little explanation. South's two heart bid was "game forcing". South is telling his partner that if they can find a fit, they have the values to be in game. North's three heart bid sets the trump suit and shows extra values. With a minimum, North would simply bid four hearts. I think that it would be correct for South to cue bid clubs at this point, but South has decided that he has pushed as far as he can and says so by bidding four hearts. North has enough to take control and ask for aces. South shows one and North bids the small slam.
When West leads the nine of spades and declarer gets a look at the dummy, he seems pleased to be in six hearts doubled. He can count six heart tricks, three club tricks, and two diamonds for sure. If the diamond king is with West, there could be three tricks from the diamond suit, making a total of twelve. An overtrick is even possible, if all go right.
It does not appear, however, that all will "go right". Why would East double this excellent slam contract? The ace of spades? The king of diamonds? Four hearts? All of these?
Declarer calls for the ten of spades from dummy and East plays the queen. South trumps low and has to decide how to continue. He could trump a club with the two of hearts, cash the ace and king of hearts, revealing the trump distribution, but how does he return to his hand to draw the last trump, cash the good clubs, and take the diamond finesse?
If he trumps a spade to return to hand he will be out of hearts when he takes the diamond finesse. If the finesse fails, which it almost must, will East be able to cash a spade or a club to defeat the contract?
As it turns out, East will not have any cards other than diamonds, but that is just good fortune (you haven't had much on this hand so maybe it is the balancing factor). I would suggest that the right way to continue is by leading the queen of diamonds (or jack) from the dummy. West can win but he has no fatal return. He probably does best to return a diamond but declarer can safely trump a spade, draw trumps, cash good clubs and good diamonds, in that order, for twelve tricks.
Someone might suggest that you should cash the ace of
diamonds first, just in case the singleton king is lurking about.
When his majesty does not appear, you can play another diamond,
offering the defense their one and only trick. The problem with
this line of play is simple; if East has the king of diamonds and
West has a doubleton, then a diamond continuation will be trumped
by West for down one. It is much safer to simply concede the
king of diamonds and make your small slam.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.