IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

I watched the following hand on the computer and thought North liked his hand way too much.  However, his aggressive bidding was rewarded by his partner's declarer play.  Take a look at a three-suit repeating squeeze.

Scoring:  IMPs (Team Game)
Hand #16
Dlr   E
Vul None
S Q1073
H A762
D 532
C A4
S
H Q853
D QJ1074
C KQ73
    
S 8652
H 94
D 86
C 109652

S AKJ94
H KJ10
D AK9
C J8
West North
 East
 South


Pass
 2NT
   Pass     3C*    Pass     3S
   Pass
     4C    Pass
     4D
   Pass
     4H    Pass
     4S
   Pass
     6S    Pass
    Pass
   DBL
    Pass
    Pass
    Pass
                                                                         *Puppet Stayman

BIDDING:  Opposite a 2NT opening bid, North used Puppet Stayman to find his partner with a five-card spade suit.  Next, there were cue bids followed by North's jump to slam.  Apparently this woke up West who decided he should double.

PLAY:  West led the queen of diamonds and South could count eleven tricks: 5 spades, 3 hearts (assuming the doubler held the queen), 2 diamonds, and 1 club.  Declarer won the diamond and promptly pulled trumps.  Next, he led the jack of hearts covered by West.  Two more hearts gave us this ending (East immaterial):
                                           H7   D53  CA4
                               H8                       
                               DJ10
                               CKQ
                                          S9   DK9  CJ8

Now declarer executed the first squeeze by playing his last spade, pitching a diamond from dummy.  With no good answer, West finally discarded the ten of diamonds hoping his partner held the nine.  Now declarer played his two remaining diamonds and West was toast.  The doubled slam with an overtrick was worth +1210 while the N/S pair at the other table stopped in game.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.