IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

The declarer play needed for some hands is often quite simple but every now and then you face a real difficult problem.  Here's one where declarer executed a "non simultaneous double squeeze".  Take a look.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #45
Dlr   S
Vul N/S
S Q7
H J
D AKQ9843
C A73
S 6
H 98
D J10762
C Q10542
    
S 98432
H AK1052
D
C K98

S AKJ105
H Q7643
D 5
C J6
West North
 East
 South



1S
   Pass     2D*     2H     Pass
   Pass
     3D    Pass
     3NT
   Pass
     5NT
 All Pass
    
* Game forcing

BIDDING:  South had a minimum hand with good distribution.  North forced to game and East made a very dangerous overcall.  Holding so many spades the hand screamed "mis-fit" but he got away with it.  After North rebid his diamonds, South bid 3NT.  North really like his hand and jumped to 5NT asking his partner to bid slam with a top heart.  South quickly passed.

PLAY:  West led his partner's suit and the defense had the first two tricks.  Knowing that a heart continuation wouldn't work and afraid to lead away from his club king, East exited with a spade.  Declarer won this in dummy and was disappointed when East failed to follow to the first diamond.  The bad diamond break left declarer with only ten tricks but he had a solution.  He played two more high diamonds and then finished the spades.  At this point, dummy held the 9 of diamonds and the A7 of clubs while declarer had the Q7 of hearts and a club.  Needing to come down to three cards, East had to discard from the 105 of hearts and the K9 of clubs.  He knew he had to keep two hearts so he discarded the nine of clubs.  Now it was West's turn to be squeezed.  South next played the queen of hearts and West had to keep the jack of diamonds so he discarded the ten of clubs.  Dummy's seven of clubs was declarer's eleventh trick. 

After winning the first two hearts, East must shift to a club to break up the squeeze.  Of course credit most go to declarer for his fine play.

Copyright ©2008 Larry Matheny.