Fail to Land in the Slam

Competing in match point tournament, you should play consistently good to finish in the big threes. I found this hand in the last round of the session and fail to find the key cards.

	♠ Q 6
	♥ Q 5 4
	♦ A K 10 6
	♣ K 9 3 2
West		East
♠ 5 4		♠ 3 2
♥ A 9 x x		♥ K 10 x x x x
♦ Q x xx		♦ 7 6 5
♣ J 4 3		♣ A x
	Declarer
	♠ A K J 9 7 6 5
	♥ void
	♦ J 5
	♣ Q 10 7 3

We reached a very optimistic contract of 6♠, without opposition bidding. I start with 1S, north respond with 2NT (natural), 3C from south, 3D from north, 3S, 4S,5H, 6C and corrected to 6S.

West started with ♦x, I found my self in early decision whether to finesse diamond or find out the Jack of club. After some thought, I play the ♦ A from dummy and throw the Jack from the hand.

Running 4 round of trump, I play a club to the King, East win with the Ace and return the heart. I have to find the ♣ J to land the contract. As you may see, the ♣ J was offside and I fail to land it.

Actually, as the cards located, I can save the slam. Just run all my trumps including the ♣ Q, West will be squeezed in club and diamond. Then finesse the diamond to land the contract.

Why I didn't see this line? Unfortunately, I have threw the diamond when running my trump. Oh dear, I have said goodbye to my slam with my discard. But, didn't you see, if I didn't throw any diamond when drawing trump the contract always fail if East could find the correct return? Yes, East will return a diamond, giving one trick but that's not enough for contract. So, the correct line is finessing the ♣ J.