Many years ago I remember Tor Helness, the great Norwegian champion, going into the semi-final of a world championship saying: ‘Whatever happens I am not going to make a mistake.’ They won (the final too, actually) and I asked him if he had succeeded in playing perfectly. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘Nobody plays perfectly and I made two mistakes.’
If he can’t do it where does that leave the rest of us? It’s always worth giving declarer a guess if you can, even if s/he is a world champ (see diagram).
North-South has (in theory) done brilliantly in the auction, reaching a very playable slam with only 25 HCP. Hands with two sources of tricks — plus a couple of controls in the other two suits — can be extremely difficult to bid to the optimum contract; indeed, if West had raised the ante with a timely 4♣ bid, it would probably have been beyond them.
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