Hand of the Week
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♦ | Pass | 1♠ | |
| Pass | 2♠ | Pass | 4NT |
| Pass | 5♠ | Pass | 6♠ |
| All Pass |
As South, you used Roman Key Card Blackwood to discover that North held two key cards (the ♦A and one of the two top trump honors) plus the trump queen. How do you plan to make your slam when West leads the ♥J?
As you have no side-suit losers, you need concern yourself only with the situation in the trump suit. In such circumstances there is really no excuse for failing to work out the safety play required. On this deal, you can easily make the slam if trumps break 2-2 or 3-1, so you must make up your mind what can be done against a 4-0 break.
The bad news is that if East holds all four trumps it’s time to concede down one and move on to the next deal. When West holds four trumps you can pick them up for one loser, but only if you play the jack on the first round of trumps! In this case, West wins with the ace and you can later run the 8 and then the 7 through West, avoiding the loss of a further trick to the 10 or 9 of trumps.
The same sort of play would have been required if all the pips were moved up one and you held like A-K-5-3 opposite Q-9-8-7-4. You can only pick up ♠J 10 6 2 on one side, so you should begin by playing the queen.