Playing a very thin slam.
Bridge Column for June 24, 2001, By HARVEY BERNSTEIN
East-West vulnerable.  South deals.
                              NORTH
                              S: A K J 7          
                              H: A 9 5 3     
                              D: A 8 3       
                              C: K 4     
            WEST                             EAST
            S: Q 10 5 4                      S: 9 8 3        
            H: J 4 2                         H: K 10 7       
            D: Q 7 2                         D: 6 5 4             
            C: 10 7 6                        C: Q J 3 2     
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: 6 2  
                              H: Q 8 6      
                              D: K Q J 10  
                              C: A 9 8 5  
          The Bidding://
                  SOUTH    WEST    NORTH    EAST                  
                   1C      Pass     1H      Pass
                   1NT     Pass     3D      Pass
                   4H      Pass     4NT     Pass
                   5D      Pass     6NT     Pass
                   Pass    Pass
     You don't always get to pick the final contract.  Sometimes
things get out of hand and you just have to do the best you can. 
That was the case on this hand which I played at a rubber bridge
game.
     I think I could make a very good case for passing in first
seat, but when this hand was dealt, I opened one club.  My
partner, holding nineteen points, had no intention of stopping
short of slam.
     The opening lead was the seven of clubs and my partner put
down this beautiful dummy.  I have learned over the years to keep
a "poker" face and just do the work I am supposed to do.  I could
count two club tricks, two spade tricks, four diamond tricks, and
one heart.  That left me just three tricks shy of my goal.
     If the spade queen was on my left I would get one more trick
from that suit, but I needed to wait to find out about that.  The
only potential source of additional tricks was the heart suit.  I
would have to find the king of hearts on my right, and the hearts
would have to split three-three.
     A three-three split is a 35% chance.  The heart king on the
right is 50% and the spade queen on the left is also 50%.  The
combination of finding all three possibilities in the correct
position comes to about 8%, but as you can see, that is the way
it was and twelve tricks came home for a lovely score. 
     The point is that if you don't have a long suit to set up,
you are going to need more high card points to be able to bid and
make a slam.  In today's hand, neither North nor South had even a
five card suit and with just thirty-one points between the two
hands, slam was a poor choice.  Keep in mind that when you bid
six and get set one trick, you have not only lost the slam, but
you have also lost the game that you could have had by stopping
short of slam. 
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.