IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

There is no doubt bridge requires some mathematical ability, but it often involves no more than counting to thirteen.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#12-31
Dlr	S
Vul	N/S

	Q3
	AK
	AKJ10543
	Q7

	A64
	987653
	6
	A83

	98
	10
	Q987
	J106542

	KJ10752
	QJ42
	2
	K9

West	North	East	South
			1
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	3	Pass	3
Pass	4NT	Pass	5
Pass	5	Pass	Pass
Pass

BIDDING: South thought his hand was too strong for a weak-2 bid so he opened 1. North made a game forcing 2 response and the auction quickly accelerated. South admitted to holding one keycard (king of spades) and North signed off at the five-level.

Play: I was in the West chair and led the ace of clubs. It was clear to me that if declarer held four hearts, my partner had only one. At trick two I led the nine of hearts to dummy’s king. A spade was led and I won the ace and gave partner a heart ruff to defeat the contract. All it took was some simple math.

Speaking of math, as I left the table I saw that North was mentally counting the high card points in his partner’s hand and just shook his head.

Copyright ©2012 Larry Matheny