E/W Vuln Dealer E	A 10 6 4 10 9 6 A 9 A Q J 3
Q 3 8 5 4 3 2 K 6 4 2 9 4	N   W E   S	J 8 7 5 J 10 8 5 3 K 6 5 2	South	North
	K 9 2 A K Q 7 Q J 7 10 8 7	Board 2.	1 4 5 6NT	3NT 4 5

Most rounds, partner and I are first to finish and sit wondering what others find to think about. We save any post-mortems for the end of the round, and I have been known to comment that I didn't go looking for a slam because our maximum points was below 33. The above hand was board 2 in a teams-of-four match and partner forgot my philosophy. She opened 1, playing 5-card majors, and my 3NT response showed a balanced 15-17 with 4 clubs. Partner used key-card Gerber despite knowing we had a 32-point maximum and put me in 6, missing two kings (don't know why she bothered asking).

The opening lead of 5 ran to the Q and Ace, and a heart to the Ace dropped the Jack and I took a losing club finesse. East returned a diamond to the Q,K,A and I stopped to think. And think. I now have two spades, four hearts, two diamonds and three clubs. One short, which I decided means a squeeze. I played a round of hearts to test my theory that East had the bare Jack, then two more rounds throwing a spade. East threw clubs and I decided to play him for the 10. I played the K (Vienna coup) then ran the clubs. On the last club East had to come down to two cards and couldn't afford the J making my 10 a winner, so had to bare his 10. My J,7 made up the 12 tricks.

Partner told me it was the longest she had ever known me to think. Our opponents were in 3NT making 11, so it was worth-while. Later, partner admiringly asked how I had done it. Looking at the hands with no pressure, it was obvious that all I had to do was play East for the J on his lead (trusting West's Q to be a true card) and take a simple and speedy finesse of the 9.