Another NOF

Here’s a recent hand to once again illustrate the NOF concept.


Dealer:
Vul:
North
KJ75
K73
72
AK107
West
Q962
QJ2
K
96542
East
A1083
9865
853
Q8
South
4
A104
AQJ10964
J3


Due to some “creative” bidding, N/S managed to get to a 6 contract. Looking at just the N/S hands, in order to make the hand, Q AND K must be on side – about a 25% chance (NOT a good slam.) As you can see, neither card is in the right place.

West led 9 (top of nothing.) With that lead, it’s obvious that Q is off-side, so declarer played A.

Next, declarer led a small diamond from dummy, but rather than finessing K, played A, dropping the singleton K!

After drawing three round of trump, leaving no trump on dummy to ruff a losing heart, declarer then played their last club to K, dropping East’s Q, setting up 10 to pitch their losing heart. Hand made!

If this isn’t an NOF, we don’t know what is.

The names of the perpetrators and victims have been suppressed to avoid bloodshed.