Who Has the Doubleton? #09-20

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

As declarer, determining the opponents' distribution isn't always easy. However, the auction will often give you a helpful clue.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #20
Dlr	W
Vul	None

	97
	AQJ2
	107432
	A8

	AK52
	10
	K98
	J7632

	J10863
	9863
	Q6
	Q10

	Q4
	K754
	AJ5
	K954

West	North	East	South
Pass	1	Pass	1
DBL	2	Pass	4
Pass	Pass	Pass

BIDDING: North-South reached a close but reasonable game. West passed at his first opportunity and later competed with a takeout double. This second action turned out to be ill advised.

PLAY: West cashed the top two spades followed by a low club. It was immediately clear to declarer that he could not afford to lose two diamond tricks. It was likely the king and queen were separated; West needed one of them to compete and would have opened the bidding with both of them. Declarer's problem then was to discover who held the doubleton honor. If it was West, a low diamond toward dummy would work. If East held the doubleton, a finesse of the jack followed by the ace was the winning play. Declarer won the club in his hand and led a low heart to dummy. After winning the jack declarer cashed the ace. Since West was short in hearts and had bragged about holding nine or so black cards, he seemed slightly more likely to hold three diamonds. Accordingly, declarer led a low diamond to his jack losing the the king. He won the club return in dummy, cashed the king and queen of trumps, and was delighted to see the queen when he led a diamond from dummy. Clearly declarer took advantage of the information provided.

At another table West cashed the top two spades followed by the bold lead of a low diamond. Declarer won the ace but could no longer make the hand. If he drew trumps, West would cash spades when he regained the lead with the king of diamonds. If he didn't draw trumps, East would get a diamond ruff to defeat the contract.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.