GETTING THE BIDDING RIGHT.

It's been more than a year since the last of the very irregular Saturday bridge columns.  Yes, the world is still too much with me; and yet there have been a lot of Saturday excursion opportunities, particularly during the county fair and Oktoberfest seasons.  Dealing with an algorithm sometimes means relying on cheat sheets.  Not so this hand.  East deals.

Two clubs: strong hand; three diamonds: longest suit and support; three No Trump, balanced hand; four No Trump: I have more; five clubs, game with a minor suit; bot goes for a grand slam on twelve points.

The opening lead is the ♥ Eight. That might make sense, hope for a ruffing opportunity, but with this lie of the cards West simply put East into Zugzwang, to mix metaphors, although that seems more sensible than saying "premature end play."  Had either defender held a sequence in Heart honors, wouldn't that be grounds for a business double?  As it stands, West leads a Heart into a ruff, and East can either let that Ten ride or lead into my Ace and Queen.

Dummy comes down, take stock: nine trumps total, no losers; no Spade losers and a discard opportunity, which is convenient with two potential Heart losers; no Diamond losers in hand, but two to be discarded from the board.  East has a choice of covering the ♥ Ten with either the King or the Jack, the algorithm chose the King and I cashed the Ace.

Next, draw trumps in three rounds, finishing on the board.  Everything is forced from there.  Three rounds of Spades, finishing with the Queen cashed and the ♥ Nine pitched.  Cash ♦  Ace, then King, Queen, and Six to a ruff. That leaves a Heart and a Club in hand and a Diamond and a Club on the board.

The scorekeeper awarded my performance on the four hands it gave me as fourth best, for whatever that's worth.