No Finesse Needed #28

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

This hand presented declarer with an opportunity to guess which opponent held the queen of hearts. But, a strong declarer will finesse only as a last resort so he looked for another solution.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#12-28
Dlr	W
Vul	E/W

	73
	A62
	Q84
	K8753

	KJ9654
	Q75
	109
	Q4

/images/pad.bmp

	Q1082
	9843
	KJ762

	A
	KJ10
	A53
	AJ10962

West	North	East	South
2	Pass	3	4
Pass	5	Pass	Pass
Pass

BIDDING: East considered bidding 4 but the adverse vulnerability kept him at the three-level. South showed a good hand by entering the auction at the four-level and North raised to game.

Play: West led the six of spades and declarer stopped to count his possible losers. That count came to three: one heart and two diamonds. It appeared he needed the king of diamonds to be in the West hand or he had to find the queen of hearts. However, declarer saw the contract was safe no matter where those honor cards were. He drew trumps, ruffed dummy’s last spade in his hand, and then played ace and another diamond. The defenders could cash a second diamond trick but then must lead a heart or concede a sluff/ruff.

Another guess eliminated.