.
Opening Lead: K
.
Start by counting losers. 2 Spade losers; 0 Heart losers; 1 Diamond loser; and possibly 1 or more Club losers. The only chance to make this contract is to keep the Club losers to 0. That means ruffing 4 Clubs in Dummy. Therefore, not even one round of trump can be played.
Problem: how to get back to the hand to lead Clubs. The only way is to ruff Diamonds, that is, crossruff the two minor suits. But in order to crossruff you have to give up the lead in Diamonds to clear that suit from Declarer's hand. A good defender after winning the trick in Diamonds and cashing the 2 Spade winners, will lead a trump. You will now only be able to ruff 3 losing Clubs in Dummy.
Solution: win the trump return in Dummy and take the Club finesse. If it wins you will make the hand by crossruffing. Play the A
; ruff the
1st Club; ruff a Diamond; ruff the 2nd Club; ruff a Diamond; ruff the 3rd
and last Club. You are left with only one high trump in your hand. Bid
and made 4 .
Contract is 6 .
Opening Lead: K .
This time count winners. 1 Spade winner
(the Ace) and 3 ruffs in the hand; and 1 Club winner (the Ace) and 4 Club
ruffs for a total of 9 tricks. The other 3 winners needed to make the Slam
are coming from the 5th trump and the Ace and King of Diamonds.
Problem: if the crossruff in the
black suit is complete, there will not be enough trump left to extract
defenders trump. Then two Diamond winners might be ruffed.
Solution: there is a slight risk,
but the Crossruff Rule must be follwed. Cash the Ace and King of Diamonds
before ruffing. Win the opening lead with the A ;
play the A 
, then
K ; A
and ruff the 1st Spade. Ruff a Club; ruff the 2nd Spade; ruff a Club; ruff
the 3rd and last Spade. Your hand now has two high trump and a losing
Diamond. Bid and made 6 .
|
DUMMY 9 8 3
K Q 8 7
K 9 7 6 4
3
HAND A 10 2
A J 10 9
5
A Q 7 4 2 |
|
DUMMY 9
A J 5 2
A 9 4
A 8 6 5 4
HAND A 8 6 4
K Q 10 9 7
K 6 3
2 |