Contract bridge: aggressive opponents push contract to vertiginous level

One player excelled himself on this tricky distributional hand, despite the best efforts of his opponents. Can you spot the extra chance?

Third in hand, and at favourable vulnerability, East decided to try to wreak havoc by opening with an off-centre pre-emptive 3C. South bid 4S but, when West competed to 5C, and there were two passes back to him, South had a further decision to make. Reasoning that, with a pass and a pre-empt from his opponents, his partner might hold some values, he pushed on to 5S.

At most other tables, E/W subsided at the 4-level and East played in 4S, making 10 tricks. However, whether in 4S or 5S, at duplicate, you should strive for the maximum tricks. West lead A♥ and then Q♣ and another. South ruffed and assessed his chances of not losing a diamond trick. A priori, East will hold both Q♦ and J♦ 25 per cent of the time. Here, East had pre-empted: did that change the thinking? Not really: it is the only realistic chance. Declarer crossed to dummy’s 10♠ and led 8♦. When East followed low, so did he, and it held the trick. He cashed a top trump and his ♦AK. Even if the suit had not split 3-3, there was a trump in dummy to ruff the fourth round. Eleven tricks made for a distinguished result.