IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny
A common error is playing
too quickly to trick one. In this hand,
it wasn’t until trick eight that declarer learned that lesson.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
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BIDDING: South’s 2NT
rebid showed a balanced hand with 22-24 high card points. North then used Stayman to look for a
possible spade fit and then bid game in notrump.
PLAY: West led the three of
clubs, declarer ducked in dummy, and East won the queen. East then shifted to the jack of hearts,
declarer won the ace, and stopped to count his tricks. He had three spades, three hearts, one
diamond, one club and several chances for a ninth trick. He cashed two more hearts but West discarded
the deuce of clubs. Next declarer cashed
the top three spade tricks but again West failed to follow discarding a
diamond. Since there was no hope for an
extra diamond trick, declarer decided he would have to fall back on the club
finesse. Since West’s lead and discard
indicated a holding of five cards in the club suit, it was very likely he held
the king. Declarer led the jack of clubs
and only then realized he had neglected to unblock that card at trick one. The suit was blocked and declarer resigned
himself to defeat.
A more careful declarer
should have thought about the club blockage before playing to trick one.
Copyright ©2010 Larry
Matheny