IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Here is another hand that shows the importance of overtricks in a pairs event.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #38
Dlr   N
Vul N/S
S Q4
H 4
D AK106542
C Q72
S KJ86
H QJ2
D QJ73
C J5
    
S 109732
H K109653
D 8
C 6

S A5
H A87
D 9
C AK109843
West North
 East
 South

1D Pass
 2C
   Pass
    2D    Pass
     3C
   Pass
     4H*    Pass
     6C
   Pass
    Pass
    Pass
                                                                          *Splinter
                                                                                            
BIDDING:  This N/S pair plays the 2/1 system so South's 2C bid was forcing to game.  North rebid his diamond suit and South did the same in clubs.  Knowing there was at least six clubs in his partner's hand, North next jumped to show heart shortness along with club support and South confidently bid the slam.

PLAY:  Realizing that declarer may have to ruff hearts in dummy, West led a low trump.  South saw the slam could be made so he considered how to find the overtrick   He could try to trump two hearts in dummy and discard his spade on the diamond king or he could establish dummy's diamond suit.  He finally decided on the diamonds so he won the club in hand and followed with ace and another diamond.  East showed out on the second diamond and declarer ruffed.  Next, declarer led to dummy's queen of clubs drawing the last trump and ruffed another diamond establishing the suit.  He now ruffed a heart to dummy and discarded his losers on the good diamonds. 

There was nothing difficult about the hand but the overtrick was important.  Several pairs played in 3NT while others were in five of a minor.  Some reached the club slam but played for only 12 tricks.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny