Trickery

Ok, so this isn't exactly a story of brilliance, but sometimes you can't get lucky unless you give yourself a chance.

In a strictly-for-fun total points game, parnter opens 1NT, and you raise to 6 clubs. Opponents lead a small spade:



Obviously not the best slam I've ever bid. It looks like I need to guess diamonds right, AND pick up hearts for no losers. At first blush, it would seem that if east has the king of hearts, I have no chance. That's now QUITE true, though.

The key play, I think, is trick one. I won the spade lead with the ace on the board. When trumps split 2/2, I led the jack of hearts. East won with the king (a holdup would have been bad for me).

At this point, if I'd won trick 1 with the king, the ace sitting out on the board would have made a diamond switch crystal clear. Since I'd won with the visible ace, east had to chose between the diamonds (with KJx visible) and spades, with no honours visible. Note that west's opening lead was spades.

Back came a spade, and now all I needed was for the ten of hearts to fall on the AQ. When it did, my slam was home.

Again, I was mostly lucky, but sometimes by hiding the situation from the defenders, a bit of luck can come your way.