Andy Stark's been a bridge acquaintance of mine for a long time.  He never lived in Ottawa (as far as I know) but made many appearances at Ontario/Quebec tournaments when I played there regularly and seemed like a genuinely nice guy (and a very strong player.)  But we never sat down as partners.  Recently, he's been on a writing tear.  He's written The Weak Notrump: How to Play It, How to Play Against It solo and co-authored Jacoby Transfers and Four-Suit Transfers with Barbara Seagram. 

I always like sitting down opposite new partners whose game and reputation I respect and was understandably pleased when he invited me to play with him in a quick (6-board) team game this evening.  I was tested right out of the box:

KJ874 / A82 / KT3 / 87

Andy opened 1 Club, I bid 1 Spade, he bid 2 Clubs, I reluctantly bid 2NT and he raised me to 3 (he made the cryptic comment 'icim' which he then explained means 'in case it makes.')

Lefty led the 9 of Hearts

AT / 76 / A74 / AJ9642

KJ874 / A82 / KT3 / 87

I ducked a couple of hearts and won the third heart, pitching a diamond from dummy.  The opponents confessed to coded 9's and either hearts were 5-3 on my left, or both opps were doing a fine job of pretending that they were.

Moment of truth:

AT / - / A7 / AJ9642

KJ874 / - / KT3 / 87

What's your plan for trick 4?

I knew I had 9 tricks if I guessed Spades and they were 3-3.  I figured that I'd give clubs a shot and if they weren't coming home, I could always play East for Qxx of spades and score 5 Spades, 1 Heart, 2 Diamonds and the Ace of Clubs.

I led a club and could no longer make the contract.  Lefty played the Queen (it could have been a brilliant falsecard from QTx, I suppose, but I hadn't denied 3 Clubs on the auction, so it would be an incredibly risky falsecard as well) and since it looked like Clubs were out as a source of tricks, I won the Ace and played East for Qxx of Spades and went down when West won the Spade Queen (original holding Qx.)

I'm still not sure what the right way to play the hand is.  You'd love to play a Spade to the Ten, into the 'safe' hand, but if that loses you're done.  But in isolation, since you can only pick up Qx of spades in the West, it is the best way to play the suit for 5 tricks.

Lefty held:

Q5 / KT943 / J82 / KQ3

Righty held:

9632 / QJ5 / Q965 / T5

We lost 2 IMPs on the board (down 1 in 3NT at the other table where they misguessed Spades without playing on Clubs first.)