IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

You need good bidding tools to reach the close games.  If you're just guessing, you need to be lucky.

Scoring:  Matchpoints  (Pairs)
 
Hand #23
Dlr   N
Vul N/S
S Q1054
H AJ10
D A754
C 86
S J7
H 983
D K108
C J7543
    
S 93
H K542
D Q932
C AQ2

S AK862
H Q76
D J6
C K109
West North
 East
 South

Pass
  Pass
 1S
   Pass     2C*    Pass
     2D
   Pass
     4S All Pass
  
*Drury

BIDDING:  North passed a near opening strength hand.  After South opened 1S, North's first impulse was to leap to game.  However, it was possible that South had opened light in third seat so North used the Drury convention to ask about South's hand.  Drury is used by a passed-hand in response to a major suit opener.  The 2D response showed an opening hand but one with no extra values.  That was enough for North and game was quickly reached.

PLAY:  This was a good game.  Declarer needed either the heart king in the West hand or the club ace in the East hand.  A diamond was led and South ended up with ten tricks losing one heart, one diamond, and one club.

It's true that most N-S pairs reached this game but what if South had opened light, say without the club king?  Would you have stopped short of game with the North hand or bid four and hoped for the best?

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.