This is aHand:

The bidding here is a little – what shall we say? – uncharted.

Still, as Shakespeare said, "The play's the thing"

Bidding.

We open 1♦ in second seat after East Passes as dealer.

West, peering into his hand, takes a tool from out of his box and proudly displays it for all to see. He bids 2♦, a Michaels cue-bid, showing a major two-suiter.

Partner bids 3♣ and East Passes, leaving us a little unsure of what to do. We assume 3♣ is forcing so, with a balanced hand and both majors stopped, we try 3NT.

That (unsurprisingly) ends the auction.
 
Play.

West leads the fourth-highest of his longest and strongest (the â™ 6) and we thank partner before taking a few moments to Count and Plan.

The powerful Club suit is very useful and, despite the lack of points (13 opposite 10) we have eight on top (six Clubs and two Aces), with some chances for the ninth. The problem is that the Heart finesse is surely wrong, given the bidding.

Well, we know what to do on these hands now – we run the long suit and see if we can crush one of the opposition – West in this case.

We take the first Spade with the Ace as a Heart shift would be unwelcome. Now comes a tsunami of Clubs, forcing an unhappy West to find six discards. After seven cards (one Spade and six Clubs) he is forced down to a six-card ending and has little option but to make that three Spades, two Hearts and the ♦A.

No worries. We calmly lead a Diamond and wait patiently. West takes his remaining Spade winners and then has to lead into the Heart tenace.

Nine tricks – thank you and goodnight.

Postscript.

East started to blame his partner for not pitching the ♦A instead of holding on to it and getting end-played. However, West disembarrassing himself of the Ace would have made no difference to the defense. We would have forced out the King using the power of the ♦Q J and come to nine tricks via a different route.