Forget Science #08-44

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

It's nice to have the ability and tools to reach the best contract, but sometimes scientific bidding just doesn't pay off. Take a look at one of my recent disasters.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #44
Dlr	E
Vul	Both

	J104
	Q4
	AK63
	AQ102

	K972
	1093
	J1098
	J4

	AQ65
	J7652

	8765

	83
	AK8
	Q7542
	K93

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
Pass	2*	Pass	2
Pass	3	Pass	3
Pass	3	Pass	4
Pass	5	All Pass

*Inverted Raise

BIDDING: I was sitting North and had to find the right bid after my partner opened the bidding. Since I wasn't sure about my major suit stoppers for notrump, I made an inverted diamond raise. This was forcing showing ten plus points with diamond support. Partner next showed a heart stopper and I indicated I had clubs stopped. But, since I had bypassed spades, I denied a stopper in that suit. My partner now rebid diamonds acknowledging his lack of a spade stopper. Not to give up on 3NT, I next bid spades asking him for half a stopper (K, QX, JXX). He followed with a club bid telling me he did not have a good spade holding but held a club honor. I then bid the game in diamonds. I thought "What precise bidding; I love this game".

PLAY: When partner ruffed the third spade trick, I was still gloating on how well we had bid the hand. However, my smile soon turned upside down when the trump suit broke 4-0 and we went down one trick. I really started to frown when I saw that the spades divided 4-4 and 3NT was cold! This was in a small local game and everyone else scored +600 and our -100 was a cold zero. I thought "So much for science, I hate this game".

On a serious note, this was an unlucky hand (a 4-0 break occurs only 9.6% of the time), but I probably should have just bid 3NT. The opponents might not lead a spade, the suit might be blocked, or it may divide 4-4. In a pairs event, it's usually best to avoid game contracts in a minor suit.

Copyright ©2008 Larry Matheny.