| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | Pass | 1♠ | |
| Pass | 2♣ | Pass | 4NT |
| Pass | 5♦ | Pass | 6♠ |
| All Pass |
When your passed-hand partner uses the Drury convention (2♣) to show limit-raise values and spade support, you bid 4NT to check for key cards. When partner shows one or four key cards, you bid the slam. West starts the defense by leading the ♦10. You win trick one with dummy’s ♦A. How to you proceed from there?
Solution
After playing the ♦A at trick one, declarer saw that the slam would be likely to make if he could hold his losers in the black suits to one. The first issue was picking the black suit to play first. Declarer decided that there would be better residual chances if trumps were attacked first. So, at trick two he led the jack of trumps and ran it when East played low. West’s discard of a low heart gave declarer pause for reflection.
Declarer’s solution was to throw a club on the ♦K then call for the ♠10 from dummy. East covered with the king and declarer won with the ace. Next, South placed the ♣J on the table, a move that guaranteed the contract provided East had at least two clubs. As the cards lay, the defense had no answer. If West had taken the trick with the ♣Q, declarer would have entered dummy with the ♣10 to pick up East’s remaining trumps and claim the contract: he would have made six trumps, a heart, two diamonds and three clubs.
At the table, West played a low club on the jack, which held the trick. Declarer continued by cashing the ♣A and ruffing the ♣8. eight of clubs with dummy’s ♠3. East overruffed this with the ♠7, but that was the only trick the defense. made. After ruffing the return of the ♦Q, declarer drew East’s remaining trump with the queen and claimed the balance because his hand was high. The full deal:
