IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

There are a lot of conventions and agreements available to get you to the ideal contract.  Here is a nice contract reached by a pair with just the right tools.  Take a look:

Scoring:  Pairs Game (Matchpoints)

Hand #15
Dlr   E
Vul E/W
S AKQJ43
H Q1093
D J6
C 2
S 8
H KJ85
D 10987
C KQJ6
    
S 65
H 64
D 5432
C 109543

S 10972
H A72
D AKQ
C A87
West North
 East
 South


 Pass
 1NT
   Pass     2C     Pass
     2S
   Pass
     3H*     Pass
     3S**
   Pass
     4C#     Pass
    4NT
   Pass
     5S     Pass
    6S
All Pass


*Slam interest with unknown singleton
**Where is it?
# Clubs

BIDDING:  When he saw his partner open 1NT,  North knew he wanted to reach at least game.  After finding a spade fit by way of the Stayman convention, North next wanted to invite slam.  His 3H bid was artificial showing slam interest with four spades and an unknown singleton.  South held poor spades but a maximum hand so he inquired and found a singleton club opposite his ace.  He used Roman Keycard Blackwood to find the ace, king, and queen of spades and promptly bid the slam.

PLAY:  West led the king of clubs and South saw the contract was ice cold.  He won the ace, ruffed a club in dummy, and drew trumps in two rounds.  Next, he played three rounds of diamonds discarding a heart from dummy.  Then he ruffed his last club in dummy followed by the queen of hearts.  Since declarer had eliminated diamonds and clubs, West could win the king of hearts but had to return a heart or give declarer a ruff/sluff.  As you can see, it did not matter where the heart honors were for this slam to succeed.

This hand was well bid and well played.

Copyright ©2008 Larry Matheny.     stats