Spade Heart  Diamond Club
Nailsea Bridge Club
27 October 2011
Consider what can go wrong?
If you are going to be able to bid games and slams on minimum excellent fitting values, I believe it is imperative your bidding system includes splinter bids, which show a four or more card trump fit and a singleton or void. Some players have modified the old jump shift bid, which shows a good suit and slam going values, so that it becomes a mini splinter bid, as can be seen with the 3D bid by East in our featured hand 21. Despite the very low high card point values, West can now see that a small slam might be a good shot provided East has two of the three key controls. After a jump to 4NT key card Blackwood,  the response of 5H shows 2 of the five "Aces" counting the King of hearts as the fifth Ace.

You have probably done the hard part  by reaching the slam. Don't blow it now! When dummy goes down declarer as expected can immediately see that provided the hearts break 2/1 and the diamonds 4/3, there should be no problems.So what could go wrong? If hearts are 3/0 you are almost certainly not going to make this contract. So the only problem to focus on is if diamonds are 5/2. First of all cash the King of hearts and the Queen of hearts drops. A little bell should be ringing in your head. You can now pick up a 5/2 diamond break, but if you woodenly play another trump you have undone all of the great work so far. There is a fantastic cross ruff opportunity sitting there to be taken. So cash the top two diamonds and just cross ruff the hand.Wow your team mates should be impressed!
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