West covered dummy’s ♠8 won by declarers ♠K. When West was back in with ♦K he lead ♠A. That dropped declarer’s ♠Q. East followed with the original 4th best spade, dummy contributes the ♠10.  When the ♠9 is led next the spade suit is blocked.

Both east and west have a full count on the spade suit after West’s spade overcall . When West plays the ♠A East should carefully preserve the low spade for the fourth round. West is guilty as well. After seeing the ♠Q drop, partner is known to have the 2 remaining spades. So lead low next, retaining the ♠9 to unblock the suit.

I’ve heard it said that you should never bid a grand slam unless you can count 13 tricks.  That may be true for those playing bridge for money, but it’s not good match point bridge.

Here partner has opened 1NT, and shown 14 HCP from the keycard information. Partner should have another point or two.  If it’s a queen that’s the 13th trick,  If it’s a jack there is a 50% finesse that may succeed. Partner also may hold a doubleton diamond, creating a thirteenth trick with a ruff.  Let’s assume there’s a 50% chance partner holds a queen, a 50 % chance of a successful finesse, and a 10% chance partner has a doubleton diamond.  Doing the math there’s a 78% probability of making 7♠.  (Can you figure out how to arrive at this number?) Being right 78% of the time is good bridge.

So how come Nancy and Linda were the only ones to bid and make 7♠ ?  Where’s my field protection?😎

Win the ♣A , play ♦AK , pitching a club, and play the K♠ . West wins but can’t prevent declarer from ruffing a spade in dummy.  That ruff turns out to be the 10th trick, declarer losing only one club, one heart, and one spade.

The key a successful trump coup is to reduce your trump holding so that it equals RHO, then be leading from dummy at trick 12.  Play three rounds of hearts, and lead a fourth from dummy, ruffing. (Now you are down to 2 trumps). Lead the ♣K , then ♣Q if necessary. Retain a club entry to dummy. You win trick 11 in dummy with ♣J . Your lead at trick 12 from dummy traps West’s ♠Q.

With 18 HCP you clearly have game values, and maybe more. But no long suit, no 4 card major….  If you had 11-12 HCP you would jump to 2NT.  With13-15 bid 3NT. With 16-18 bid …..4NT!  4NT in this situation is a natural “quantitative “ slam ask.  You expect your side to have 30+ HCP. But partner needs another King or long suit source of tricks to move on. North should pass ending the auction.

The obvious way to play clubs is to play the 9♣  from dummy playing the 10♣  when west play low.  But, bucause there is still a trump in dummy it is equally effective to start with the A♣ , play the Q♣  finessing East for the K♣ .  If east covers, ruff and the J 10 ♣ are now good. If East plays low, discard.  Unless you need more than 2 club tricks there is no obvious reason to choose one finesse over the other,   East could mistakenly help you out by signaling for a club somewhere during the play.  Those who chose the ruffing finesse were rewarded, making 4♠ .

Now NS are expecting to take 12 tricks, leaving 8 for EW, That would be -800 at 6♦ doubled.  Better than -920 for 6♣ making.  Can you beat 6♣ ? Why didn't you (E) think of that before bidding 5♦ ?? With no defensive tricks and partner leaving it to me I'm bidding 6♦ !

Restricted Choice tells us you are twice as likely to find South with a singleton, but in this case the only way to avoid a spade loser is to rise with the A♠, dropping the doubleton Q♠ ! Note that if you could return to dummy and take the finesse again that would be the best play, but here you have no entry to get to dummy.