IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

A strong declarer must be familiar with many different card combinations. In this hand, declarer’s play left his opponents no way to escape.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#13-19
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	4
	K10932
	A10865
	85

	J106532
	5
	K7
	AKQ10

	K97
	J
	Q92
	J97643

	AQ8
	AQ8764
	J43
	2

West	North	East	South
-	-	Pass	1
1	4	Pass	Pass
Pass

Bidding: N/S reached a routine 4 contract. The adverse vulnerability kept E/W from competing any higher.

Play: West led the ace of clubs and continued with the king which declarer ruffed. Declarer saw his contract was in no danger with only two possible diamond losers. To hold the diamond losers to one he could play West for both diamond honors, or he could try to guess who held a doubleton honor. But, he saw a better line and continued by playing the ace of spades and a spade ruff. Next it was a heart to his hand drawing trumps followed by another spade ruff. Now he simply played the ace and a low diamond. West won the king but had only black cards to lead allowing declarer to trump in dummy and discard his diamond loser. Making the overtrick gave South a tie for top.

Note this line of play in the diamond suit works whenever there is a doubleton honor in either hand.

Copyright ©2013 Larry Matheny