IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

On defense it's important to signal some information to your partner but you have to realize declarer is also at the table. 

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #51
Dlr   E
Vul N/S
S 1043
H AQ1062
D A64
C Q2
S Q9765
H 98754
D 83
C 9
    
S J82
H 3
D K1075
C KJ1084

S AK
H KJ
D QJ92
C A7653
West North
 East
 South


Pass
 1C
   Pass     1H    Pass
    2NT
   Pass
     3D*    Pass
    3NT
   Pass
    Pass
    Pass
                                                                        *checkback for heart support
                                                           
BIDDING:  South was too good to open 1NT and his rebid showed 18-19 high card points.  North bid diamonds to see if South held three hearts and the notrump game was reached.

PLAY:  West led his fourth best spade won by South.  Declarer immediately saw the contract was in no danger so he went looking for overtricks.  At trick two he unblocked the K-J of hearts and then led the queen of diamonds for a finesse.  East won the king and returned a spade and declarer noted West followed with the five.  It appeared that West had started with five spades and five hearts.  On the run of the hearts declarer discarded three small clubs.  For some reason East felt he needed to tell his partner he was in possession of the king of clubs as he discarded the eight followed by the four.  Declarer next cashed the ace of diamonds and the odds seemed to favor leading a low diamond to the nine but declarer saw there was no reason to do so.  Instead he played to the queen and then threw East in with the last diamond.  At trick twelve East had to lead away from his king of clubs and that was declarer's eleventh trick. 

Some things are best kept to yourself as West carefully reminded his partner.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny