Mahatma Gandhi said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

North and South were happy at the end of this deal. Look only at the North hand. Your partner opens one heart, you respond one spade, he rebids two diamonds, and you jump to three no-trump, thinking that will end the auction. But no, partner raises to four no-trump. Do you feel called upon to do anything now?

Note that four no-trump was not asking for aces. If South were that strong, he would not have rebid a nonforcing two diamonds. Four no-trump was quantitative, indicating some 16 or 17 points.

Then perhaps you will think that with only 13 points, you do not have the values for a slam. However, you have two aces, the heart king, and three 10s – all excellent cards. So David Bakhshi from England jumped to six hearts. This showed high-honor-doubleton in hearts, because with three, North would have supported that suit earlier. Andrew McIntosh (South) passed with such strong hearts.

They had reached a fair slam that got better when West did not lead a spade. He chose instead the club seven. South won with dummy’s queen and took the diamond finesse. When it won, declarer cashed his diamond ace and ruffed a diamond with the heart nine. East overruffed with the 10 and returned a trump to stop a second diamond ruff. South returned to his hand with a club, drew trumps, crossed to dummy with a spade, and cashed the club ace. When the jack dropped, declarer claimed these 12 tricks: one spade, five hearts, two diamonds and four clubs.