GNT 2018 final

In the finals of the 2018 Grand National teams, Sylvia Shi held this hand:

 6  
 A7  
 Q93  
 AKJ9873.
 

She opened 1, but it didn't mean what it looked like. It showed a strong hand (Precision-like). After a long (with some artificiality) auction, she ended up declaring 5.  Yes, diamonds! Don't worry, her partner had shown a 5-card diamond suit. The bidding had revealed spade weakness and thus she received the A lead here:

Q87  108543  AK1085  --

6  A7  Q93  AKJ9873

West led another spade to the queen and king. What is the plan?

It is best to plan the play from the long-trump hand (in this case North). Even if diamonds behave, what can be done with all of North's major-suit cards? Trying to trump them won't work (especially since one ruff has to be with the Q). Much better is to try to set up the clubs.

The first move should be to trump a club in the North hand (don't cash the AK, opening yourself up to over-ruffs). After that, comes the A and a diamond to the queen. Had they split badly, declarer would have to re-assess the situation. However, everyone followed to the Q. Now what?

The A is still a side entry, so declarer should now trump another club (again keeping the AK in tact). After the club ruff (all following), the suit is established. There is only one trump outstanding and only one high trump left in North's hand. The K draws the last trump (the 7 being thrown from South) and a heart to the ace allows the clubs to be run--making 6. Well played. Here is the Real Deal:

Vul:E-W Dlr: East	Q87  108543  AK1085  --
A542  KQ6  J6  Q1062		KJ1093  J92  742  54
	6  A7  Q93  AKJ9873

A heart lead would have made life harder (removing that key entry). In that case, declarer would probably have won and returned a heart. Then, she could trump a heart in her hand and throw two spades on the AK.