IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

To defend a hand properly it's important that you and your partner have sound signaling methods.  However, there are times when it's best to remain silent and allow declarer to go wrong.  Take a look at this hand.

Scoring:  Matchpoints  (Pairs)

Hand #44
Dlr   E
Vul E/W
S 973
H KQ108
D 3
C AQJ62
S AK62
H J9654
D 62
C 74
    
S Q54
H 7
D J10984
C K953

S J108
H A32
D AKQ75
C 108
West North
 East
 South


Pass
 1D
    Pass
     1H    Pass    1NT
    Pass
    3NT
 All Pass

BIDDING:  North-South had a routine auction to 3NT. 

PLAY:  Knowing there were at least four hearts in dummy, West led a low spade.  East won the queen and the defenders quickly had the first four tricks.  On the last spade, East couldn't resist discarding the nine of clubs and West promptly shifted to that suit.  Declarer also noticed the discard and decided to believe it.  South could count eight tricks if the heart suit behaved and saw a possible squeeze position if East held long diamonds.  So declarer rose with the ace of clubs and followed with the king and ace of hearts.  When East showed out on the second round, it was easy to finesse West for the jack of hearts.  On the fourth heart, East had a real problem; he had to come to four cards and couldn't keep a diamond guard plus the club king.  No matter what he discarded, South had his ninth trick.

With no other information, declarer would probably have taken the losing club finesse so East should have discarded a low diamond on the last spade.  East could see that declarer only had eight tricks (4 hearts, 3 diamonds, and 1 club) so he had no reason to tell the world he held the club king.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.