This is a deal from our last round robin match at the Parle State Level.
C. P. Deshpande, sitting North, held:
♠ K Q
♥ A J 8 4 3
♦ A Q 6
♣ K J 10
He heard his partner open 1N (15-17). If you held these cards playing with your favorite partner, how would you bid this monster hand?
My guess is most people (including me) would transfer to Hearts and bid a (natural) 3♣. Indeed, that is what happened on the other table. Well, on 3♣ South bid 3N, denying fit for any of responder's suits. North now had no good bid available, and bid a safe 6N.
C. P. Deshpande foresaw that after transferring to his heart suit, he would have problems later on. So, he opted to find out about opener's hand instead with Stayman and Extended Stayman.
This is how the auction proceeded:
The 3♠ bid showed a 5 card diamond suit.
5N confirms all key-cards, asks for extras. 6♥ shows the ♥K.
West leads a trump; declarer can count 12 top tricks: 5 Diamonds, 3 Spades, 2 Hearts and 2 Clubs. The 13th trick can come in several ways:
1. Heart finesse (50%)
2. Club guess (50%, unless you have super table presence)
3. Setting up the fifth heart, if hearts are 4-2 or better (57%)
4. A Club ruff in dummy, after drawing 2 trumps and discarding a Club on the ♠A (a little more than 50%)
Cases (3) and (4) require a 3-2 diamond break, which is reflected in the reduced percentages.
Ashok Vaidya duly chalked up 13 tricks for a 13 imp gain.
Moral of the story: Use the available bidding tools with discretion; sometimes, listening is more important than speaking!