IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Sometimes the most simple play can be overlooked.  Here is a hand where the establishment of an extra overtrick was missed.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #29
Dlr   W
Vul E/W
S A3
H 9652
D K843
C A54
S 4
H AQ873
D J65
C Q1073
    
S 10987652
H 4
D 109
C 962

S KQJ
H KJ10
D AQ72
C KJ8
West North
 East
 South
Pass
 Pass
 Pass
 2NT
   Pass     3C    Pass
     3D
   Pass
    3NT
    Pass 
    Pass
   Pass


                                                                                         
BIDDING:  South's 2NT opening showed 20-21 high card points.  North used Stayman to check for a possible heart fit and then signed off in game.

PLAY:  West led a low heart won by declarer with the ten.  Declarer played the ace and queen of diamonds to make sure that suit behaved and counted 3 spades, 1 heart, 4 diamonds and 2 club tricks.  Without enough thought, declarer played two more diamonds and then took the losing club finesse.  West won the queen and exited with a club to wait for two more heart tricks.  With the nine of hearts in dummy, declarer missed an easy play for this eleventh trick.  He should just concede his king and jack of hearts and the nine becomes the second overtrick.  This simple play was missed by over half of the N/S pairs.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.