Prevent the Entry #07-10

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Defense can be difficult but sometimes just a little reasoning will solve the problem. Take a look at this example.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #10
Dlr	E
Vul	BOTH

	J7
	9642
	J973
	K94

	654
	Q75
	K106
	J1075

	A10
	K83
	AQ542
	863

	KQ9832
	AJ10
	8
	AQ2

West	North	East	South
		1	1
Pass	Pass	DBL	RDBL
2	Pass	Pass	2
All Pass

BIDDING: After a routine opening bid, when South's 1

overcall came back around, East made a re-opening double. This did not show extra values but was necessary in case West held a spade stack and wanted to defend. It is an important that partnerships who use the negative double remember the importance of this. South's redouble showed a maximum overcall and the auction quickly ended at the two-level.

PLAY: The opening lead was a diamond followed by a second one ruffed by declarer. South saw the contract was in no danger but this was a pairs event so he looked for overtricks. His loser count was one spade, one diamond, and two possible hearts. The bidding told him that at least one of the heart honors was on his right but the king of clubs was the only obvious entry to dummy. To solve this dilemma, he led the spade queen from his hand. East couldn't wait to win with his ace and lead another diamond. Declarer ruffed, led a spade to dummy's jack, and followed with a low heart to his ten. West won and switched to clubs but South won this in dummy and led another heart to his jack. He now had ten tricks.

You no doubt noticed that East must duck the first spade lead in order to limit declarer's access to dummy. With only one entry, South must lose a second heart trick. When this hand was played in a local game, one N/S pair bid and made 4

, one went +500 defending, six made ten tricks in a spade part score, and only five pairs held South to nine tricks in spades. As we've seen, without an unlikely heart opening lead, South should be held to nine tricks. It isn't that difficult.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.