IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #52 with Larry Matheny

Here is another hand that shows how important overtricks are in matchpoint (pairs) events.  See how you would have done.

Scoring:  Matchpoints

Hand #52
Dlr  N
Vul E-W
S 652
H Q83
D AK75
C K103
S 10
H 10742
D QJ10
C QJ752
    
S J743
H J6
D 9832
C 986

S AKQ98
H AK95
D 64
C A4
West North
 East
 South

1D Pass
 1S
Pass
 1NT Pass
 2C*
   Pass
    2S    Pass
     6S
All Pass



*New Minor Forcing

BIDDING:  North rebid 1NT to show a balanced 12-14 point hand.  South bid an artificial 2C (New Minor Forcing) to find out if his partner held spade support.  North's 2S bid showed three card support but a minimum raise.  South felt there should be some play for slam so he bid it.  He decided to bid 6S instead of 6NT in case he needed to ruff a heart in dummy.

PLAY:  West led the queen of diamonds and South could count twelve tricks as long as the trump suit wasn't a problem.  And a thirteenth trick was there if the hearts divided 3-3.  Unfortunately, those same tricks would be available for those in 6NT.  First things first, he led the top two trumps to find the bad break.  It was easy to reach dummy to take the spade finesse, draw trumps, and he was back up to twelve tricks.  Now in search of the overtrick, at trick one East played the nine of diamonds to show his partner he also held the eight so no squeeze was likely that included the diamond suit.  But, if West held four or more hearts along with the club queen and jack, he could be squeezed.  It was a long shot but it didn't cost anything to try.  Accordingly, South played the king of diamonds, the top three hearts, and then the last trump.  West now had to discard from: H10 and the CQJ7 while dummy was behind him with the CK103 and declarer held the H9.  Obviously this same squeeze is available to those in 6NT but it is always important to try for the extra trick.

Note that all we did to execute the squeeze was to play off our winners.  However, when you entered dummy to take the spade finesse, I hope you didn't use the king of clubs.  That will ruin the squeeze.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.