Shooting the Moon
By Mark Horton In 16th World Bridge Series On 20th August 2022
In the card game Pinochle (which involves the use of only 48 cards) a player who manages to take all the tricks is said to ‘shoot the moon’. On this deal from the second round of the McConnell the opportunity arose to achieve the feat using all 52 cards:
Nevena Senior’s 5
was asking for a diamond control and when Nicola Smith showed she could look after the first round with 6{, she was able to make a grand slam try by bidding 6
. That was enough for Nicola to ‘shoot the moon’.
When West led the 
2 Nicola Smith was tempted to claim!
She could be sure West held a diamond void and given that West must hold significant club length there had to be a double squeeze.
She took the lead in dummy and tested the trumps. When the suit divided she crossed to dummy with the K and cashed two clubs, pitching hearts from her hand. Next came the 
J, covered by the king and ace and that was followed by two more spades. This was the position:
When Nicola cashed the 4 West had to part with a heart. Having served its purpose dummy’s 6 went away. Had it been East holding the three hearts and the Q she would have been the one without resource. It was a rare combination, precision bidding and perfect play that delivered 13 IMPs.
