Hand of the Week

East will Pass as Dealer. South will open 1H, intending to rebid 2H rather than reverse into 2S.  West passes.    

North has an opening hand with 5-5 shape, so is heading for Game but not sure where yet.    You can respond 1S and then jump to 3C, which shows five spades and 4+ clubs, highlighting the lack of a diamond stopper for 3NT.    Or you can start with a response of 2C and then rebid 2S.    This only promises four spades, so I think it's better to start with 1S.

After 1H - 1S South knows there is a spade fit.    Count your losers and find 6 losers (or add two points for the singleton), and it's worth a jump to 3S.

North now counts their losers, six, so a slam is possible.   Check for aces, you have them all, so 6S seems a reasonable punt. 

Nobody was in slam ! OK, you could lose the queen of spades and the diamond finesse. You don't need the diamond finesse, you can pitch a diamond loser from North on the king of hearts. But you also need to do a lot of crossruffing.   If the spades are 2-2 then you draw trumps and still need to ruff three hearts and a diamond from the South hand, and you only have three trumps left in the North hand. Playing a complete cross-ruff seems better, and the hearts or clubs may ruff good (they don't).   You also have a ruffing finesse in clubs.

East on lead to 6S.    The king of clubs is normal (or maybe a spade).

Win the club lead, unblock the ace of hearts, and now lead the jack of clubs. East covers, you ruff and the 98 of clubs are good.

Now you can play on trumps, just playing Ace and King  (8 ever - 9 never).   When the Queen falls you have the rest of the tricks, 98 of clubs, ruff the last club, ace of diamonds, king of hearts, and trumps in North. 

A trump opening lead will expose the Queen and the 2-2 break.   The best lead may be the 8 of hearts, West playing low, and now the ruffing finesses in clubs are not obvious, declarer will probably play to crossruff, and may get over-ruffed early in clubs or hearts. Even in the non-slam contracts there was a range of leads, some better than others.