West	North	East	South
	-	-	-	1♠
	2♥	3♥*	4♥*	6♠!
	Pass	Pass	Pass*

West led the Queen of Hearts
North-South Vulnerable.

This hand came up in face-to-face club play and broke a few hearts sitting in the East chair. West gambled on the vulnerability for her bid, and North's cue bid promised at least a limit raise in spades, saying nothing specific about Hearts. East opted to raise Hearts, and South stopped to consider his options.
 
Using Losing Trick Count, South reckoned that on the auction, his hand contained two or three losers, and combining that total with an assumed count by partner of 8 losers, a slam in spades should be possible. South had a reputation for being a very imaginative player who tended to bid all slams, whether they made or not. South considered a psychic cue bid of four clubs, but settled instead for a simple leap to six spades. His bid closed the auction.
 
West tabled her Queen of Hearts, and you can guess the rest. South took two quick Club discards on Dummy's Ace and King. He then played three rounds of spades, ending in Dummy, and planned to run the Queen of Diamonds. But when East covered, declarer had twelve easy tricks.
 
South deserves at least partial credit for stealing slam, since the auction suggested numerous combinations of high cards in partner's hand that would give slam a play, and nobody likes minor suit games at matchpoints! And in any case, his leap to slam avoided directly disclosing the North-South club weakness. Or did it?
 
Players might argue that the opponents made their unpleasant result possible. Resulters might find fault in West's ultra light overcall, and perhaps rightly so, for without it North's response would have been either a two heart bid or a Jacoby Two Notrump call, and the North-South auction would have been on its way to revealing the North-South Club liability. But the spotlight should most likely focus on East. Many would agree that either of these actions would be likely to have directed West to the winning defense:

• East could have doubled the final contract, an action that should ask West for an unusual lead. Then a heart lead should look quite non-productive to a thoughtful West. South's jump to slam, eschewing any key card query, certainly suggested at that point a void in Hearts.
   
• East could have bid four clubs over three hearts to suggest a tolerance for hearts and club values, correcting back to hearts if doubled. This combined with a final pass should get West off to the right lead.

Two last comments about East-West actions. The first is that steady partnerships need to be sure to discuss what will be implied by raising partner rather than doubling with support in any given competitive situation. The second is a tribute to East's poise under fire; despite the gut-wrenching situation this board presented, East gave no sign by gesture, word or tempo that disaster might strike.

 

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