IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

As much fun as it is to take a successful finesse, it feels even better when you avoid a losing one.  Take a look at this example.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)
 
Hand #8
Dlr   E
Vul BOTH
S AKJ543
H 7
D A6
C QJ65
S 8
H Q94
D KQ982
C K1042
    
S 6
H KJ1082
D 7543
C 873

S Q10972
H A653
D J10
C A9
West North
 East
 South


Pass
 1S
   Pass
    2NT*    Pass
    4S
   Pass
    4NT
    Pass
     5H
   Pass
    6S All Pass
* Jacoby 2NT

BIDDING:  Many people would not open the South hand but today's style is to bid aggressively.  The 2NT bid was a forcing spade raise and South tried to slow his partner down by showing a minimum hand with his leap to 4S.  But, North wasn't to be stopped and used Blackwood to bid the slam.

PLAY:  West led the king of diamonds and declarer saw a diamond loser plus a possible loser in the club suit.  Rather than rely on a 50% club finesse, South saw a play that would ensure the contract.  He won the ace of diamonds and played a heart to his ace followed by a heart ruff in dummy.  Then a spade to his hand to draw the trumps and another heart ruff in dummy.  A second spade to his hand allowed him to ruff his last heart in dummy.  Now he led a diamond and West was end played.  His choices were to lead a club away from his king or give a ruff and a sluff allowing declarer to discard his club loser.

This simple elimination play was missed by many of the declarers.  Most weren't in slam but overtricks are important in pairs events and making only five was a poor result.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.