Hi all
Here’s another one from last Thursday. Hoek and I were really on a high (result: +52 imp).
My LHO opens a strong NT. Hoek enters the bidding with a Landy 2
and I make a slightly agressive jump to game in 
. Even slam could be on if partner holds the Ace of and something like AQ-5th in trumps. But let’s try game first. Everybody agrees and dummy comes down on the lead of 
Ace.
LHO shifts to a small trump. Plan the play!
You can take a ruffing finesse in , but you get into entry troubles if you want to draw trumps as well. You have to make up your mind now, if West has the Queen let it run to your Jack, but if East has it and fires back another trump, things aren’t looking very bright.
Try to combine a crossruff with the ruffing finesse. Take the trump switch in dummy and ruff a . Now the King of , let’s assume West covers, ruff in dummy. Come back to hand with another ruff and cash the Queen and Jack, discarding 
.
Who has the remaining high ? It has to be with East so you can score your small trump in dummy. Relieved you see LHO discarding a , ruff the with the 8. Now another from dummy and East has only losing options. If he ruffs high and returns a trump it’s the end of the defence. Because you still have the Ace and high , and if he discards you score your trumps seperately, leading to ten tricks as well.
After two days this game looks so easy. But last Thursday no one else was able to bid the game or score ten tricks in a contract.