Improve Your Play

 

Remembering the Auction

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By Larry Matheny
Fort Collins, Colorado

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Some hands are relatively easy to play while others require a lot of work. This one was a bit complicated, but declarer had a roadmap to succeed.

Dealer: East Vul: North/South

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                                 North
                                 ♠A103
                                 ♥A87
                                 ♦8643
                                 ♣AK9

             West                                East
             ♠J98752                          ♠K4
             ♥106                               ♥K2
             ♦Q52                              ♦AJ107
             ♣83                                 ♣QJ752
                                 South
                                 ♠Q6
                                 ♥QJ9543
                                 ♦K9
                                 ♣1064

South        West        North        East
                                                  1♣
1♥              Pass         2♣           Pass
2♥              Pass         4♥           Pass
Pass           Pass

Opening Lead: ♣8

Bidding
North cue bid the opponents’ suit to ask about the strength of his partner’s overcall. After South showed a minimum, North had to be satisfied with just bidding game.

Play
West led the ♣8 to dummy’s ace. The auction made it clear to South that the major suit kings and the ♦A were in the East hand. That meant he couldn’t avoid losing one spade, one heart, and one diamond, so he had to avoid losing a club.

At trick two declarer led a low spade from dummy and East rose with the king. East continued with a high club to dummy’s ♣K. Declarer led a spade to his queen and then a heart back to the ♥A. (It made no sense to take a heart finesse that was bound to lose.) Now he played the ♠A, East ruffed with the ♥K, and declarer discarded his last club. East followed with a third club, hoping to promote a trump trick for his partner, but declarer ruffed with the ♥Q.

Declarer now drew the last trump with the ♥J, followed by a small heart to dummy’s ♥8. All that was left now was to lead a low diamond toward his ♦K. Game bid and made.

The Key

The key to this hand was just to remember the auction.
East’s opening bid gave South all the information he needed to succeed.

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