It is always fun to bid a slam. It is even more fun to actually make it. To achieve that feat, a combination of good hand evaluation and good judgement is required. Board 15 is a good example needing accurate bidding and careful play.

 

After South passes and West opens 1H. East responds 1S and West has a rebid problem to solve. With a nice 17 count it seems best to show extra strength. As a jump rebid of 3D is forcing to game and we are too weak for this action so we are left with 2D or 2NT. The possibility of being passed out in 2D does not appeal so we settle for 2NT as the most accurate bid available. The club holding of Qx is a good holding for declarer as long as partner is not also short in the suit.

 

With a nice 14 point hand East can see values that are close to a slam although there are not the 33-34 points normally needed to make 6NT with no long suits to run. But first East needs to try for a possible 5-3 heart fit as an extra trick could be made by ruffing a diamond.So East bids 3H showing 3 card support and totally forcing. West confirms that he holds 5 cards in hearts by raising to 4H. Alternatively he could cuebid 4D to confirm that he has 5 hearts and the ace of diamonds and a suitable hand for slam.

 

Now East can see that a slam must be a good but there are not the values for any good chance to make a grand slam so the simple choice is to bid 6H. If you prefer Blackwood will confirm 4 key cards with West on the way to 6H. Now for the play...

 

Counting tricks there are 3 in spades, 5 we hope in hearts, 2 in diamonds and 1 in clubs for a total of 11. A possible extra trick would be a club towards the queen, a 50-50 chance. A better line is to ruff diamonds in dummy. So to preserve an entry to hand we take the spade lead in dummy with the king and play the king of diamonds and then another diamond to the ace. When we lead the third round of diamonds, North discards and we ruff in dummy. Now we can play a spade to the carefully preserved entry of the ace of spades. A fourth round of diamonds is ruffed in dummy and the queen of hearts cashed.

 

We are now in dummy and need to get back to hand to draw the rest of the trumps. As there is no club entry to hand we have to play a spade. If we try the queen South will ruff and we lose one of our tricks.So we lead the small spade and ruff in hand.South tries to promote a trump trick for partner by ruffing with the 8 of hearts. We overruff with the 9 and cash all the trumps. The last two tricks are won with the ace of clubs and queen of spades in dummy.

 

6H bid and made with an overtrick and a complete top on the board. Bridge is an easy game!