IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

It's surprising so many declarers forget the auction after the opening lead is made.  Here is a hand where the declarer not only remembered but took advantage.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)
 
Hand #9
Dlr   N
Vul BOTH
S Q74
H 84
D AKQ97
C 983
S J632
H J10762
D J8
C 54
    
S 10
H KQ953
D 1052
C AQ107

S AK985
H A
D 643
C KJ62
West North
 East
 South

Pass
 1H 1S
   Pass
    2H     3C     4S
All Pass
   
  
    

BIDDING:  North held a great dummy for a spade contract so she cue bid the opponent's suit.  She was a passed hand so this showed a hand worth 10-12 points in support of spades.  East's bid of 3C was bold and unnecessary.  After North's cue bid, there were few cards left for her partner to hold so a quiet pass would have been better.  South had a good overcall and accepted the invitation to game.

PLAY:  Declarer won the heart opening lead and took stock of the hand.  With East promising nine or more cards in the round suits, it was unlikely trumps would divide 3-2.  Declarer also noted East probably held only four clubs or West might have lead her singleton.  Accordingly, at trick two he played the spade king from his hand.  Noting the ten from East, declarer followed with a spade to dummy's seven.  Next he unblocked the spade queen and led a club toward his hand.  East rose with the ace and tried to cash a heart.  South ruffed, drew the last trump, and discarded his two losing clubs on the diamond suit.  Making six earned all of the matchpoints.

South did nothing extraordinary; he just listened to the auction and made logical assumptions.  If East had started with the doubleton J10 of spades, declarer would still make his contract.  However, if he played the queen of spades on the second round and East showed out, declarer would have to be very careful to succeed.  Please note that it was East's second call that enabled declarer to achieve this result.

The principle of "restrictive choice" was also a factor in South's decision to play for a 4-1 spade break.  In theory, holding J10 doubleton, East could choose to play either card.  Holding only the ten, he had no choice.  Therefore the odds were 2-1 that the ten was singleton.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.