Table Feel #12-26

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

Overtricks are very important in a pairs event. Sometimes you can be sure of the location of the missing high cards but other times you must rely on your “table feel.”

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#12-26
Dlr	N
Vul	none

	J4
	6532
	Q85
	AQ104

	Q1076
	98
	632
	9852

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	852
	AJ104
	KJ109
	J3

	AK93
	KQ7
	A74
	K76

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1
Pass	1	Pass	2NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

BIDDING: I was sitting South and my jump to 2NT showed a balanced hand with 18-19 high card points. My partner bid game.

Play: West led the six of spades and I won with the jack in dummy. I continued with a low heart to my king. Next I played a club to dummy’s queen followed by a second heart. East rose with the ace and continued with the jack of hearts to my queen. I then played the king of clubs and was delighted to see the jack fall. I cashed the ace and king of spades discarding a diamond from dummy as East discarded the jack of diamonds on the last spade. I led my last club to dummy’s ace and then played the ten of clubs discarding a low diamond. East was laboring over his discards so I was confident he held the king of diamonds. Here was the 3-card ending with the lead in dummy:

6 Q8

K10

3 A7

I led the six of hearts and discarded the spade from my hand. East had to lead away from his king of diamonds for my eleventh trick.