IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

You need a reason to bid in this game. You objective might be to buy the contract, direct an opening lead from partner, or to simply disrupt the opponents. What you don’t want to do is to make a bid that accomplishes nothing but delivering information to your opponents.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#12-29
Dlr	W
Vul	E/W

	AJ105
	73
	A97
	A752

	873
	AQ82
	Q852
	K10

	Q9
	109654
	J106
	Q86

	K642
	KJ
	K43
	J943

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

BIDDING: I was in the South chair and liked my hand when partner opened 1. After partner raised my spade suit I might have considered a try for game if West had not made a takeout double showing hearts and diamonds. Her bid alerted me to the fact that my heart honors were very likely poorly placed so I passed.

Play: West led the three of spades and that took care of my trump problem. It still left me with five other possible losers: 2 hearts, 1 diamond, and 2 clubs. I drew the last trumps as East pitched a heart. I tried to keep the lead away from East by playing ace and another diamond but East won and switched to a heart. I lost the five tricks I had indentified early and made my contract.

Would I have made a game try and got too high if West had not intervened? We will never know.

Copyright ©2012 Larry Matheny