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Partner opened 2♣, She plans on showing a 22-24 point balanced hand. 2♢ by me shows some values, sufficient to force to game over her 2♣ opener. By agreement, I have either an ace, a king, or some pair of queens. 2NT by partner was as described, and since she may have a 5 card spade suit, I went into our version of Puppet Stayman. 3♢ by her merely denied having a 5 card major. It did not promise any 4 card major though. (The standard puppet systems tell your opponents far too much about your hand. On at least two occasions I have been able to defeat a contract when they told me too much about their hands in a puppet sequence.)
For me now, once she has denied a 5 card major, I need to get her into 3NT. We do this by bidding 3♡, which merely denies a heart suit. I may have spades. When partner bids 3♠ now, it says that if I really do have spades, she wants to be in the spade game. As you can see, she has not denied a heart suit, since I already denied one. When I correct to 3NT however, she can pass. The opponents have been told a little less about our hands though.
Anyway, what is interesting about the hand is how to play it. North led a 4th best club, the 6. Partner chose to let it run to her hand, winning the 10. Seeing the need to set up two winners in dummy, she cashed the diamond king, then led the spade queen. Well done partner. She sees the need to establish an entry to dummy in spades.
South wins the spade king, then exits with the heart 4. Partner inserts the 10 from her hand, but it loses to the jack from North. Both opponents see what declarer wants to do, and hearts are the only suit they can play now. So North returns another heart, the 6. The 8 from dummy sees the king appear from South, as partner wins the ace. All is going according to plan now. She exits with another low spade, as South wins the jack, and continues yet another heart, won by partner's queen. But partner has it completely under control now, since the spade 9 is now an entry to dummy. She gets those two diamond winners.
I thought at the time, WELL DONE partner. She made her 11 tricks by being generous, giving away two spade tricks, to then reap the rewards for her generosity.
But do you see what could have made the hand more interesting?
Suppose South also decided to try being generous? Suppose South chose to DUCK the spade queen? After all, South knows exactly what the problem is. Declarer had a stiff diamond king, and so her shape was very likely 4414. Now things become more difficult to play, but since the spades do split 3-3, she can still succeed. In fact, because the opponents can never touch either minor suit, declarer will make 10 tricks, but not 11 tricks now.
And that seems interesting. But, could partner have done better? Could she have insured 11 tricks, despite the duck by South? Well, yes, though this is a bit of a double dummy line. She needed to be more generous yet! At trick 1, partner had to win the first club with the ace or king. Winning the trick cheaply with the 10 cost her a dummy entry.
The idea here is when South does not play the queen, she sees that North has the club queen. So by winning trick 1 with say the king, now she insures a late club entry to dummy. So declarer will now cash the diamond king, then exit with a LOW spade towards the 10. That forces the Jack from South, who cannot afford to duck this trick. South now must exit with a heart, as declarer inserts the queen from her hand.
Now the coup de grâce is a low club towards the jack. She has the late entry to dummy in clubs due to her early use of a top honor, and by taking the later spade finesse through South, she insures 11 tricks. Yes, this line is a double dummy thing. I'm not sure I would have found it. The line she did follow was what I would have done.
Being giving can yield rewards!