IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

While defense can often be difficult, sometimes it's simply a matter of cashing your tricks.  Here is hand where one got away.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #30
Dlr   W
Vul E/W
S 3
H A62
D A96
C AKQJ62
S Q6
H J9875
D J1052
C 75
    
S AK974
H K
D 843
C 10984

S J10852
H Q1043
D KQ7
C 3
West North
 East
 South
Pass
 1C 1S DBL*
   Pass     3S    Pass
   3NT
   Pass
    Pass
    Pass 
   
                                                                          *Negative Double
                                                                                  
BIDDING:  South had a choice of responding 1NT or making a negative in case his partner held four hearts.  North's 3S bid asked South to bid 3NT if he held a spade stopper and South obliged.

PLAY:  West the queen and another spade to East's king.  Rather than cash the spade ace and set up two tricks for declarer, East switched to a low diamond.  Declarer ran six club tricks and then cashed the ace of hearts.  When the king fell, declarer had eleven tricks: 2 hearts, 3 diamonds, and 6 clubs.  Looking at dummy, the danger of the third defensive trick vanishing was certainly possible so East should have grabbed it while he could. 

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.