A slam for the win.
Bridge Column for December 9, 2001, Harvey Bernstein
Neither side vulnerable.  South deals.
                              North
                              S: K Q              
                              H: K 9 5 3     
                              D: Q 10 3      
                              C: K Q 7 2 
            West                             East
            S: 9 7 4                         S: A 10 6 3 2
            H: 10 7 2                        H: 4          
            D: K J 5                         D: 9 8 6 2           
            C: J 10 9 4                      C: 5 3         
                              South                         
                              S: J 8 5 
                              H: A Q J 8 6  
                              D: A 7 4     
                              C: A 8      
          The Bidding:  
                  South    West    North    East                  
                   1H      Pass     2NT     Pass

                   3NT     Pass     4NT     Pass
                   5C      Pass     6H      Pass
                   Pass    Pass     
     Thanks to Stan Dub of Shaker Heights for this interesting
slam from the Flight A Swiss Team event on November 4 at the
Buckeye State Sectional Bridge Tournament in Solon.  Dub held the
South cards.  His partner was Jerome Rolnick of Lyndhurst.  Their
teammates, playing the East-West hands at the companion table
were Bernie Olmsted of Warren and Frank Aquila of Fairlawn.
     The auction was fairly straight forward for this level of
competition.  Two no trump was the Jacoby convention which shows
a game forcing raise in hearts.  Three no trump shows a balanced
16 to 17 high card points.  Four no trump was Roman Key Card
Blackwood, and the five club response showed zero or three key
cards.
     The opening lead was the jack of clubs.  Dub won the ace and
drew trumps in three rounds.  A spade went to the king and ace. 
East returned a diamond.  Dub won the ace and played all of his
major suite winners.  On the last of those cards, West had to
pitch one card from the king of diamonds and the ten-nine-four of
clubs.  He selected the four of clubs.  Dub pitched the queen of
diamonds from the dummy and the king-queen-seven of clubs took
the last three tricks, bringing home the slam on a minor suit
squeeze against West.
     At the other table, the same contract was reached and the
jack of clubs was also the opening lead.  Declarer won the ace,
drew trumps in three rounds and led a spade to the king and the
ace.  Olmsted returned the three of clubs.  Declarer won the king
and all of a sudden, there was no play for the contract.  The
club play had cut the communication between declarer and his
dummy and he had no way of squeezing West.  The simple play of
returning partner's opening lead was worth 14 IMPs (International
Match Points), helping the team win the match and eventually,
first place in the event.  
     Each player on the team won 16 silver master points which
was enough to put Olmsted over the 5,000 master point level.  A
sweet reward, indeed, for making the correct play.
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.