IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

 

Entries to a weak hand are often rare and must be used very carefully.  This hand illustrates that point.

 

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand#19

Dlr

E

Vul

N/S

S

QJ63

H

J5

D

9643

C

982

S

52

H

109832

D

K7

C

QJ63

  pad  

S

K8

H

Q64

D

Q852

C

AK75

 

S

A10974

H

AK7

D

AJ10

C

104

West

North

East

South

   

  

1D

    1S

   DBL*

    3S

    Pass

    Pass

  Pass

   

        

  

   

                                                            *Negative                                             

 

BIDDING:  I was sitting South and after East opened the bidding, I chose to overcall 1S rather than 1NT.  West made a negative double and my partner’s weak jump raise to the three-level ended the auction.


PLAY:  West led the ten of hearts covered by the jack, queen, and ace.  I was disappointed that West had not led his partner’s suit.  This meant I needed to lead three times from dummy:  once to finesse in spades and twice to lead diamonds to finesse East.  The only entry was a heart ruff so I continued with the king and a third heart.  Next, I led the queen of spades and East obliged by covering.  My next play was the SEVEN of spades to the jack and I was delighted to see the trumps divide 2-2.  I now led a diamond to my ten and West’s king.  He continued with a club and I ruffed the third round with the NINE of spades.  Now the carefully saved FOUR of spades could be led to dummy’s SIX in order to take a second diamond finesse. 

 

Bringing home ten tricks was lucky but a good result.

 

 

Copyright ©2010 Larry Matheny