Zach Grossack and Tom Paske overstretched to six spades in our final deal from the 2025 World Bridge Tour, but Grossack made up for it with some sparkling declarer play.
Whereas I might have bid a simple three spades over three hearts on the North hand, Paske opted for a negative double. Thus, he was guessing whether to act again when South freely bid four spades over four hearts. When he did, Grossack deemed his three key cards and the spade queen sufficient for slam.
West could have led his singleton club, which would have torpedoed the slam immediately, but he chose a diamond. Grossack took that with the king, unblocked the heart ace, then pulled two trumps (preserving an entry to hand) and ruffed a heart.
Next came the first stroke of genius — declarer called for the club nine from dummy. Grossack was hoping to pin a singleton eight in the West hand. The effect was similar, however, when East mistakenly covered with the 10. Grossack took that with the ace, ruffed his last heart and cashed his two remaining trumps, discarding a diamond from dummy to reach a four-card ending with a diamond and K-7-6 in clubs facing A-x in diamonds and two clubs in hand. What could East discard? Reducing to two clubs would be immediately fatal, with declarer poised to duck a round, so East bared his diamond jack. Alas, declarer could then cash the diamond ace and lead a club to the six, endplaying East to lead back into the king-seven tenace. Bravo.