IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

 

Is it possible to have too many points?  While that may seem a silly question, here is a hand  where a player had half of the deck’s high card points and only used the Pass card.

 

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#11-33

Dlr

N

Vul

E/W

S

52

H

9752

D

Q642

C

J75

S

Q106

H

KQ3

D

A5

C

AKQ32

  pad  

S

8743

H

864

D

1087

C

985

 

S

AKJ9

H

AJ10

D

KJ93

C

104

West

North

East

South

   

  Pass

   Pass

    1NT

   Pass   

  Pass   

   Pass

   

    

   

 

 

BIDDING:  After seeing the 1NT bid on his right, West had no trouble grabbing the Pass card.  You seldom hold the right hands to make a penalty double of a strong 1NT bid so double has a different meaning with this partnership.

 

PLAY:  West led the top five clubs and declarer had some discarding problems.  He finally released 1spade, 1 heart, and 1 diamond.  West then exited with the king of hearts and declarer was down one.

 

Several West players couldn’t resist bidding and ended in various contracts going down.  Unfortunately for me, my West was one of only two who saw the wisdom in passing so I was rewarded with ˝ of a matchpoint. 

 

Copyright ©2011 Larry Matheny