Two-Edged Sword #10-03

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

This hand has (at least) two different lessons. First, it shows how preempts can be a two-edged sword, pushing opponents into great contracts they might not otherwise reach. The second point is that the auction provides a lot of information to a declarer who is listening.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #3
Dlr	W
Vul	E/W

	10643
	AQ96
	86
	865

	92
	KJ4
	K9
	KJ9743

	7
	873
	AQJ10542
	102

	AKQJ85
	1052
	73
	AQ

West	North	East	South
1	Pass	3	3
Pass	4	End

BIDDING: West opened his minimum hand and East decided he could best describe his hand with one bid. South bid his good suit and North decided his meager values were enough for game.

PLAY: West led the king of diamonds which East covered with the ace. A second round of diamonds was played followed by a shift to the ten of clubs. At first, declarer did not like his chances. It looked like he would need to find the king and jack of hearts in the West hand, only a 25% chance. He made a mental note to discuss his partner's raise to game. Then he stopped to count the points. East has shown up with the AQJ of diamonds and that left only eleven points for West's opening bid. All of a sudden, the probability that West held both heart honors looked good. So, he rose with the ace of clubs, drew trumps, and led a low heart to dummy's nine. When this won, he returned to his hand with another trump to lead a heart to the queen. When the hearts divided 3-3, he was able to discard his losing club on the last heart and made eleven tricks for an excellent score. He made a mental note to thank his partner for his great raise to game.

After the nine of hearts wins, a slightly better play for the overtrick is to run trumps and squeeze West in hearts and clubs. This earns the overtrick when West holds four hearts to the KJ.

Copyright ©2010 Larry Matheny.