The scene is the Young Chelsea Bridge Club on a Friday night, allegedly home to "one of the best games in Europe". You have been having a fairly decent session, bidding and making all your makeable — and a few unmakeable — games and beating your opponents' ones when you pick up the following uninspiring collection at red:

	6 4 3
	8 4
	K J 10 9 8 7
	5 2

LHO deals and passes, partner also passes and RHO opens a game forcing 2. Resisting the temptation to overcall on your crap hand, you pass and the auction continues:

At this point partner comes in with a lead directing double of 5 — given your own holding in this suit you imagine partner must have something like AQxxx.

The auction continues with 5NT from RHO (asking for kings and presumably showing the presence of all the aces), and LHO raises this to 6NT, passed out. The full auction has been:

West	North	East	South
LHO	Pard	RHO	Me
Pass	Pass	21	Pass
2	Pass	4NT2	Pass
53	X	5NT4	Pass
6NT	AP

Notes
(1)	Game Forcing
(2)	Standard Blackwood
(3)	One Ace
(4)	Asking for Kings

Now partner is quite capable of making a lead directing double with a void, intending to ruff the lead in a suit contract. However the only suit bid so far is spades and he would be on lead against those, so I lead a diamond in confidence.

Dummy comes down with: A K Q 8 7 10 7 6 5 4 2 10 3 and both partner and I are slightly surprised when declarer discards on this trick! The full deal was:

So not only has RHO bid Blackwood with a void, but she has heard my partner's lead directing double (and her partner's one-ace response) and stayed in no trumps with no stopper in "our" suit, cleverly avoiding the cold grand slams in spades, clubs (both of which have thirteen top tricks) or hearts (the latter being the most risky as it needs the heart finesse, but making as the cards lie)!

Question — is xx opposite a void the worst combined holding in a suit ever seen as a stopper for a no trump slam?

You're a canny lot — Paul's question on whether xx opposite a void was the worst ever stopper for a no trump slam was answered in a couple of days! Robin Barker writes:

There was a TV series and a book of a bridge match between the UK and USA. On one hand, a pair played in 7NT with a diamond stop of singleton opposite void. The void holder had cue bid her first round control and opponents had sacrificed in 7. The singleton holder assumed partner had the A as opponents had not bid diamonds (on a twelve card fit), so took the push to 7NT.

The wrong defender led (out of turn) and banning a diamond lead might allow declarer to make 7NT — but no one noticed.

Can anyone top that?