IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Many players think a squeeze play is beyond them but here's a hand where it's very simple.  Take a look.

Scoring:  Pairs Game (Matchpoints)

Hand #17
Dlr   E
Vul E/W
S A1054
H AKQ2
D 7
C K984
S J763
H 65
D 8654
C 1032
    
S K98
H J1094
D 10932
C 76

S Q2
H 873
D AKQJ
C AQJ5
West North
 East
 South


 Pass
 1D
   Pass     1H     Pass
    2NT
   Pass
     3C*     Pass
    3NT
   Pass
     6NT
 All Pass
   
*checkback for a major

BIDDING:  South's hand was too good to open 1NT and he showed 18-19 with his jump rebid.  North checked back for a possible spade fit but South denied holding a four-card major by rebidding 3NT.  Without a known fit, North gave up on a grand slam by bidding 6NT.  A slightly more delicate auction may have uncovered the cold 7C contract.

PLAY:  West led a low diamond and declarer could immediately count twelve tricks: 1 spade, 3 hearts, 4 diamonds, and 4 clubs.  Since this was a pairs event where overtricks were important, declarer's next task was to find a thirteenth.  He quickly saw that he either needed hearts to divide 3-3 or the person with the heart length to also hold the king of spades.  Accordingly, he won the diamond and immediately played the ace of spades.  Then it was easy to play the eight minor suit winners to see if he was to be successful.  Dummy's last four cards were hearts while the spade queen remained in declarer's hand.  East was caught; he followed to four diamonds and could discard one spade on the third club but had to concede the overtrick when the last club was played. 

Note it was important to first play the ace of spades to avoid leaving an "idle" card in East's hand.

Copyright ©2008 Larry Matheny.     stats