Dutch expert Herman Filarski likes to tell the story of this deal, which occurred in a tournament in Holland many years ago. Filarski, North, opened one diamond, and he and his partner eventually reached six hearts, which was certainly a reasonable contract.

West led the nine of diamonds, and South had to decide how to play the slam. After a brief huddle, he decided not to finesse the diamond and went up with the ace. He was afraid that the nine might be a singleton, in which case, if he finessed, East would take the king and return a diamond to set the slam.

South also felt certain the diamond finesse couldn’t win, since West was not the type of player who would lead from a king against a slam.

South’s judgment was dramatically confirmed when the ace caught East’s king. Declarer then led a trump and went up with the ace after East followed low. South was planning to play another trump next to prevent East from ruffing a diamond if West started with the K-x of trump.

However, South was again rewarded when the ace caught the king, and the outcome was that declarer — after playing two tricks and nabbing two singleton kings — was able to claim the rest of the tricks.

Filarski was very pleased by his partner’s performance — spearing two kings in a slam — but the opponents viewed the feat with some degree of suspicion. On the next deal, they held their cards much more closely to their respective chests.

Tomorrow >> Famous Hand.

— Steve Becker