IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

When declaring a hand, entries to your hand and dummy can be extremely valuable. In this hand the opponents gave the declarer some help.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#12-27
Dlr	E
Vul	none

	106
	A85
	108
	KQJ942

	K953
	1042
	K63
	A53

	A87
	K6
	QJ42
	10876

	QJ42
	QJ973
	A975

West	North	East	South
		Pass	Pass
Pass	1	Pass	1
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	2	Pass	Pass
Pass

BIDDING: I was in the South chair and considered opening but I finally decided my hand consisted of too many “quacks.” My partner did open in fourth chair and we arrived at a heart partscore.

Play: West led the deuce of hearts and I stopped to analyze the hand. I would like to establish the club suit but the ace of hearts appeared to be my only entry to dummy. However, since the opponents were leading trumps, another entry might be possible. I ducked in dummy and unblocked my nine of hearts under East’s king. He continued with a low heart and I followed with the trey. No matter which heart West played I now had a second entry to dummy. I won his ten with the ace and continued by playing the king of clubs. I discarded a diamond and West won the ace. West shifted to a low diamond but I won the ace and led my heart seven to dummy’s eight and was able to discard two more diamonds on the high clubs. I then conceded the two top spades and had nine tricks for a good result.

Note that without unblocking the nine at trick one, the opponents could prevent a second entry to dummy.

Copyright ©2012 Larry Matheny