Remember the Auction #10-29

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

You must remember the basics to be a successful declarer. In this hand the rule that guided declarer was “remember the auction”.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand#29
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	84
	AQ3
	KQ105
	J874

	J10752
	J98
	J843
	5

	AKQ963
	K1076
	96
	6


	542
	A72
	AKQ10932

West	North	East	South
		1	2
3*	5	Pass	6
Pass	Pass	Pass

*weak

BIDDING: North’s jump to game showed values and South, realizing they had to be in the red suits, continued to the slam.

PLAY: The jack of spades opening lead was ruffed by declarer. South had two losing hearts and the auction virtually guaranteed the king was in the East hand. A 3-3 diamond break could be the answer but declarer saw a better line. At trick two he led a trump to dummy and ruffed the last spade. Next, he played the king-ace of diamonds followed by a third. When West followed low, declarer played the ten. It didn’t matter if the finesse won for the slam to succeed. When the finesse won, a heart loser was discarded on the queen of diamonds. If the finesse had lost, East would have to lead a heart into dummy or concede a ruff/sluff. The other heart loser would be discarded on the now good five of diamonds.

Note that if West had not followed to the third diamond, declarer would rise with the queen. A fourth round would allow declarer to discard a heart to end-play East into a fatal return.