After South opened a Strong 2♠ North simply used the Blackwood convention, found South held all four aces - a 5♣ reply to 4NT shows either 0 or 4 aces - and “punted” the Grand Slam. How should South plan the play on ♥K lead from West?

South took stock before playing from dummy - admirable technique - and counted one ♥ trick, four ♦ tricks and one ♣; with no chance of any extra tricks in those suits, he thus needed seven tricks from trumps; that meant trumping two ♣s in dummy.

He won ♥A, cashed ♣A and trumped ♣6 with ♠9. He crossed to ♠10, East discarding a ♦, and trumped ♣7 with ♠K. He led ♠3 to ♠J, drew West’s two remaining trumps discarding two ♥s from dummy, cashed ♦A, overtook ♦J with ♦Q, and cashed ♦K and ♦10 discarding ♥3 and ♣8 from his hand. He took the last trick, his thirteenth, with ♠4. Grand Slam made.

ANDREW’S TIP: By counting your sure tricks outside trumps, you can plan how many trump tricks are required for your contract.