Elimination Play #10-40

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

As declarer, it’s so important to develop a plan before playing to the first trick. Here is a hand where the declarer saw the need to first eliminate a side suit to increase his chances for success.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#10-40
Dlr	N
Vul	N/S

	A74
	K983
	KJ3
	1074

	KJ62
	Q
	107
	AK9852

	108
	102
	Q8642
	QJ63

	Q953
	AJ7654
	A95

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1
2	3	5	5

Pass Pass Pass

BIDDING: The bidding was certainly spirited. After originally passing, North cue bid the opponents’ suit to show a limit raise in his partner’s heart suit. East took advantage of the favorable vulnerability to apply maximum pressure to his opponents and South took the final bid hoping North had no wasted strength in clubs.

PLAY: West the ace of clubs ruffed by South. Assuming hearts behaved, declarer saw three possible losers: 2 spades and 1 diamond. At trick two declarer took the safety play in hearts by leading to dummy’s king (he could not pick up Q102 in the West hand) and then ruffed a club. Next he drew the last trump followed by a third one to dummy. He ruffed dummy’s last club and then played a spade to the ace and another toward his hand. When East followed with the ten, declarer played the queen and West was end-played. If he returned a spade it would run around to his nine. If East happened to hold the jack of spades that meant the suit had divided 3-3 and declarer could use the 13^th spade to discard a diamond from dummy. At the table, West returned the ten of diamonds and declarer had his twelve tricks and a tie for a top result on the board.