IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

We count our high card points for the bidding but the spot cards often determine whether the contract succeeds.

Scoring: IMPs (Teams)

#13-12
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	QJ1098
	K875
	J954

	QJ8763
	Q1092
	632

	109542
	7542
	64
	KQ

	AK
	AK63
	AJ3
	A1087

West	North	East	South
-	-	Pass	2
Pass	2	Pass	2NT
Pass	3	Pass	4
Pass	6	Pass	Pass
Pass

Bidding: North’s 2 response was game forcing denying a suit headed by two of the top three honors. South showed a balanced hand with 22-23 high card points and North’s 3 rebid was a transfer to hearts. South made a “super accept” and North simply bid the slam.

Play: West led the queen of spades and declarer stopped to analyze the hand. He saw he had all of the high club spots and decided a finesse in clubs offered the best chance of success. He would discard two of dummy’s diamonds on the spades and play for the 75% chance that either the king or queen of clubs was on his right. So he discarded a diamond on the spade lead and played the ace of trumps. He was disappointed when West discarded a spade but continued with his plan. He drew three more rounds of trumps and then led the jack of clubs. The queen came up and declarer quickly claimed 12 tricks: 2 spades, 5 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 3 clubs. If the club finesse had lost to West, he would have won the return and repeated the finesse in clubs. Slam was also bid and made at the other table so no IMPs were won or lost.

Copyright ©2013 Larry Matheny