IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

To be a good declarer you must know how to play many different suit combinations.  However, making the percentage play is not always that easy.  Take a look at this hand.  

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)
 
Hand #28
Dlr  N
Vul E/W
S K8732
H J9
D Q932
C J9
S A10
H 108643
D 874
C 852
    
S Q
H AQ752
D J106
C 10643

S J9654
H K
D AK5
C AKQ7
West North
 East
 South

Pass
 Pass
 1S
  Pass     4S All Pass     

BIDDING:  South held a great hand but a weak spade suit.  North jumped to 4S to show a weak hand with long spades.  Such a leap usually contains a singleton or void but North felt this was the most descriptive bid with this hand.  Fortunately, this partnership also agrees that this jump denies an ace so South was comfortable passing.  Several pairs used Blackwood to discover they were missing two aces and now they had to make 5S.

PLAY:  West led a low heart won by East with the ace.  South ruffed the heart continuation and his only problem was how to play the spade suit.  Declarer led a low spade from his hand and West followed with the ten.  Now what?  Let's look at the possible spade holdings in the West hand: AQ10, A10, Q10, and 10.  You can't go wrong with the first one; you either win with the king or duck and get back to your hand and lead toward the king again.  And, with the singleton 10 on your left, you always lose two tricks.  That leaves A10 and Q10 for us to ponder.  This seems to be a 50-50 proposition on whether to duck or play the king.  Assuming the bidding hasn't helped you locate the ace, the only other variable is the person in the West seat.  If he "hitches" before playing the ten you might consider playing the king.  Or, if you feel he would always rise holding the ace, you can duck.  This is where your table presence comes in.  It's your call.

While this should be a 50-50 guess, in a recent club game 10 pairs made five, 2 pairs made only four, and 1 pair went down one.  Were those 10 pairs lucky, didn't know any better, or did West help them out?  I wish I knew.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.