Tom Hanlon does not like to blow his own trumpet, but some deals are too pretty to remain unmentioned. This is from the third session of the Open Pairs Final:
The [D]J was led, for Tom’s queen. He realized that there was not much chance unless the [S]Q was singleton, so he played the king at trick 2! Success!
But his work was not yet finished. Tom next played the [S]J, ducked by North. He went to the table with the [C]A and played spades until North took the ace. He won the heart return in dummy and drew the outstanding trumps to reach this ending:
When Tom came to hand with a diamond South could not afford to pitch a heart as declarer would then play a heart, setting up the queen. However, when he threw a club Tom could cash the king of clubs and exit with a club forcing South to surrender the game going trick to the queen of hearts.
+620 was not quite a top because three Easts made a tenth trick in 3NT and two North’s went for -800 in 2[S]x, but no-one else took ten tricks in spades.
