This is aHand:

Well, it's Hand 4 all over again.

Déjà vu, Vubridge style.

What is partner doing? What does he want you to do?

Bidding.

We deal this hand once again and open 1♠, clear-cut with a five-card suit, 14 points and a 5·3·3·2 shape. Partner responds 2♦ and we have an obvious rebid of 2NT to show a balanced 12-14 points. Partner now leaps exuberantly to 4NT. Here we go again…

Well, as the previous deal, we have made a limit bid in No-trumps so 4NT is a quantitative raise; North is inviting us to bid 6NT should we feel the urge, otherwise Pass. As we have a maximum in the context of our bidding to date (and a star card in partner’s suit – the ♦Q) we advance to 6NT.

Play.

Against 6NT West leads the ♣10 (it’s best to make a safe or passive lead against a No-trump slam) and we hasten to Count our top tricks before making a Plan.

There are seven top tricks (two Spades, two Hearts and three Diamonds) with two Club tricks obvious once the ♣A has gone. Nine easy tricks, then, but the target is twelve.

A 3-2 Diamond break will see us home and that’s well within the odds – 67·8% for those who know their odds (About two-thirds of the time for those who are menaced by decimal points and percentage signs…).

What if Diamonds don’t break? Well, we can’t afford to give up a Diamond as we’d have two sure losers (the ♣A is out there, remember). So part of the Plan is to see if there is a second string to our bow.

We try the ♣J at trick one as we are anxious to smoke out the ♣A early. East obliges by taking his Ace and returning the suit. We take that in hand with the ♣K and play off the ♦Q and another Diamond. Misery! West pitches a Heart and we know that Diamonds are 4-1. A 5-0 break on Hand 4 and now a 4-1 split. Did we kick a black cat or something?

Right – a recount. We have nine easy ones and need three more. Playing Diamonds is pointless – sure, we’d set the suit up and take eleven tricks but that’s giving up without even a whimper. There must be another source of tricks, somewhere.

What about Spades? If that suit could provide five tricks we’d be home and hosed. Let’s see, five Spades, two Hearts, three Diamonds and two Clubs makes…twelve! (And no need to finesse the ♥J, either). To make five Spade tricks we need East to have precisely ♠Q × ×, well against the odds but if that’s the only chance we have to go for it. Anything’s better than conceding without a fight.

So we take the ♠K next and finesse the ♠J. It wins. Next comes the ♠A and… everybody follows! That’s the contract made and we breathe a sigh of relief.

Plan A failed but Plan B came romping home to take the money.