Where Is the King? #07-47

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Here is another example that shows the importance of remembering the auction. Being able to place the opponents' honor cards is often the difference between failure and success. Take a look.

Scoring: Matchpoints (pairs)

Hand #47
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	762
	943
	A4
	KJ972

	1085
	K107
	Q1076
	654

	AKQ9
	8652
	J9
	1083

	J43
	AQJ
	K8532
	AQ

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1NT
Pass	2NT	Pass	3NT
Pass	Pass	DBL!	All Pass

BIDDING: North-South had a normal auction to reach 3NT that was doubled by East. Apparently East-West have the agreement that a double in this sequence asks West to lead his weakest major. This is not a convention played by many partnerships.

PLAY: West obeyed and East won the first four spade tricks. On the last spade, West discarded the ten of hearts. When East continued with a low heart at trick five, declarer paused to see if there was any way to make the hand if the king of hearts was off-side. Reflecting on the auction, declarer came to the conclusion that East would have opened the bidding if he held the heart king along with that spade suit. Therefore, declarer won the ace of hearts, cashed the ace-queen of clubs, and went to dummy with a diamond. The last three clubs were played and West was squeezed. He had to discard from

K and

Q10 while declarer had the

K8 in his hand the

9 in dummy. Making three doubled was the top score on this hand.

The odds of a squeeze on West were certainly less than finding the heart king in the East hand, but a simple review of the auction was all declarer needed to find the winning play.

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