Go With the Odds #09-12

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Partnerships with the right convention or agreement can sometimes reach a contract that others cannot. Here is a good hand to show how the Lebensohl convention can be very useful.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs Game)

Hand #12
Dlr	W
Vul	N/S

	6
	KQ7
	AKQJ10
	A742

	AQJ953
	J95
	873
	10

	872
	A1083
	962
	Q65

	K104
	642
	54
	KJ983

West	North	East	South
2	DBL	Pass	3
Pass	3	Pass	3NT
Pass	Pass	Pass

BIDDING: Holding a great hand, North made a takeout double of West's weak-two bid. South responded with his best suit and North had to consider his next bid. Did South have zero points or perhaps eight or nine? Fortunately this partnership uses lebensohl responses to a t/o double of a weak-two bid and didn't have to guess. South's response showed 7-10 points and a club suit. With a weaker hand, South would make a artificial bid of 2NT asking North to bid 3C. South could then pass or sign off in diamonds or hearts. Knowing South had values, North next cue bid asking his partner to bid 3NT with a spade stopper.

PLAY: West led the queen of spades hoping his partner had an entry and could return a spade. Declarer won the king and counted eight tricks: one spade, five diamonds, and two clubs. Realizing he couldn't safely establish a heart trick, his only chance was to find the queen of clubs. So at trick two he led a low club to dummy's ace followed by a low club back toward his hand. It was decision time and declarer thought since West's spade bid promised a six-card suit, there was much more "room" in the East hand. Going with those odds, instead of playing for the clubs to divide 2-2, declarer put in the jack and was delighted to see West discard. Declarer now had eleven tricks and a fine score of +660.

Note that those pairs who bid game in clubs had the same guess in the trump suit but if they were successful, their score would only be +600.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.