Board 8 I held:
AK542
A8
AKQ8
86
Interesting that if you're going to get into a Grand Slam, it might as well be 7NT rather than 7
or 7
(especially at Pairs), since all three contracts depend totally on the Spades being no worse than 4-2 (because you need
3 discards in the North hand on the Spades in 7
or 2 discards on the Diamonds in the South hand in 7
. Either way, you need both Diamonds and Spades to be coming in for no losers without ruffing.
Even OCP would struggle to get to the Grand, though, because the absolutely crucial card is the Jack of Spades in the North hand and even OCP would struggle to identify that. I think the only way to get to a Grand here is for South to just punt it and hope LOL! OCP would bid
South North No
1
(16+) 2
(GF)
2
(1) 2NT
(2)3
(3) 3
(4)3
(5) 4
(6)4
(7) 5
( 8 )5
(9) 5
(10)6
(11)(1) Asking about Controls
(2) 2 Controls exactly (A or KK)
(3) Asking about Diamonds (agrees the suit)
(4) No Top Honour in Diamonds
(5) Asking about Spade Controls
(6) 3rd Round Control of Spades
(7) What
kind of 3rd Round Control of Spades
( 8 ) Exactly
Qx
(9) Asking about
Controls
(10) No Control of Hearts, so
xxx(x)
(11) Can now be completely certain that North has 6-card Diamonds, because with 2353 shape North would have responded 1
initially (showing a balanced hand), especially with honourless Diamonds. Given the lack of the
King in the North hand, North
must have the Ace of Clubs, but South cannot be sure if North is 2362 or 2461, but it doesn't really matter, because in both cases there are 3 losers in the North hand and without knowledge of the Jack of Spades, South cannot safely bid 7
, let alone 7NT, because that would need 3-3 Spades.