IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny
In our youth one of our first lessons
is learning to count. It is sad that
this simple skill is not used more often at the bridge table. Here is a hand that shows just how important
counting can be.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
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Pass |
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BIDDING: After North opened 1NT, East made a
lead-directing overcall and South forced to the heart game.
PLAY: West obediently led his partner’s
suit and East continued with a third round forcing declarer to ruff in
dummy. Declarer saw he had a spade to
lose, so to be successful he would have to find the queen of diamonds. Rather than assume East who overcalled held
the queen, declarer decided to find out more about the hand. After ruffing the third club declarer pulled
trumps ending in his hand. Next he led a
small spade to dummy’s jack. East won
the with the king and exited with another spade. Declarer now knew the diamond queen was in
the West hand because East would not have originally passed if he also held
that card.
This simple bit of deduction was
possible by using just a little math.
Copyright ©2010 Larry Matheny