South in today’s deal was American expert Owen Lien. The auction is not known to us except for the two no trump opening and the final contract. We offer the auction above, featuring a common bidding tool in the modern game. The three-spade bid showed some slam interest with one or both minors. The five-club continuation showed a one-suited hand with clubs and South, with great cards for slam, carried on. South had the right high cards for slam, but not the right low cards. An extra low club instead of a low card in any other suit would have made the slam reasonable. Lien needed a small miracle to bring this one home.
West led the ace of diamonds and shifted to the queen of spades. Lien won in dummy with the ace and cashed three high hearts to discard the remaining diamond from dummy. He led the king of diamonds, on which both West and dummy shed spades. Lien ruffed a diamond in dummy as West shed another spade. Lien led a club back to his ace, pleased to see the jack from East. Lien ran the 10 of clubs, successfully finessing against the queen. He then ruffed his last heart in dummy and led a spade back to his king. In this two-card ending, Lien led his remaining spade and picked up West’s remaining trumps with a classic trump coup. Beautifully done!
