North would have bid three spades at his second turn if he intended an invitational sequence. Bidding the “new minor” first made the threespade bid forcing. North-South were playing Key Card Blackwood. North held the king of spades, so he read South’s five-spade response as showing two aces plus the queen of trumps, spades on this auction. North made the inspired decision to bid the grand slam in no trump, where a bad trump split might be overcome.
South won the opening heart lead in hand with the ace. He saw that a 3-2 split in spades would see him home, but like any good declarer, he was in no rush to start playing on spades. He crossed to dummy with the ace of diamonds and cashed the king-jack of diamonds and the king-jack of clubs, before returning to his hand with the queen of spades.
He discarded dummy’s heart on the queen of diamonds and two spades on the ace-queen of clubs. This left a three-card position with North holding the ace-king-nine of spades and South holding the six of spades and the ten-four of hearts. West could not keep the queen of hearts and three spades, so he discarded the queen of hearts, hoping that his partner held the 10. No luck for him as South, took the last three tricks with the 10 of hearts and the ace-king of spades. Well played!
