IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Bridge is a difficult game where even the experts make mistakes.  Here is a hand where a defender didn't know when to leave well enough alone.  Take a look.

Scoring:  Matchpoints  (Pairs)
 
Hand #31
Dlr   N
Vul N/S
S K6
H 982
D AQ984
C K75
S Q5432
H J
D 73
C QJ962
    
S 1087
H 53
D KJ1052
C A103

S AJ9
H AKQ10764
D 6
C 84
West North
 East
 South

1D Pass
 1H 
    Pass    1NT
    Pass     6H
    Pass
    Pass    Dbl
 All Pass

BIDDING:  North-South were in the middle of a bad session so the kindest thing you can say about the auction is that South thought they needed a very good score.  East doubled which conventionally asked his partner to lead dummy's first bid suit, diamonds.  As you will see, that was a big mistake.

PLAY:  West obediently led a diamond and declarer quickly realized the double was based on the diamond king and the club ace.  Declarer won the diamond ace as East encouraged with the five.  Declarer took note of the diamonds spots and saw a chance.  At trick two he played the diamond queen and ruffed when East covered with the king.  West followed with the trey and declarer read the opening lead to be from a doubleton diamond.  Next South led the heart ace and followed with a heart to dummy.  He then led the nine of diamonds covered and ruffed.  Now he led to the king of spades to play the diamond eight.  This was also covered and ruffed.  Now it was a simple matter to ruff the third spade in dummy and play the good diamond four and discard a losing club.  I'm sure you noted that East could not afford to signal encouragement with the five at trick one. 

The irony of the hand is that East doubled for a diamond lead but if he just passed, West would probably have led the queen of clubs and the contract would quickly be defeated.  Isn't this a great game!!

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.