IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

Hands with wild distribution are often hard to bid. It helps when you have a good partner who knows how to evaluate his hand.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#13-22
Dlr	E
Vul	N/S

	AKQ75
	98
	Q10942
	10

	10986
	KQ
	K86
	9872

	J43
	42
	AJ753
	J54

	4
	AJ107653
	AKQ63

West	North	East	South
-	-	Pass	1
Pass	1	Pass	3
Pass	3	Pass	3
Pass	3NT	Pass	4
Pass	6	Pass	Pass
Pass

Bidding: Sitting South I liked my strong two-suiter and made a jump shift to force to game. My partner wanted to hear more and then suggested 3NT. To show a more distributional hand, I bid my club suit again. My partner recognized the strength of his singleton club along with two trumps and bid the slam.

Play: West led a low diamond which I trumped. Needing trumps to be either 2-2 or one of the honors to be singleton, I continued with ace and another heart. I was later able to discard two clubs on the good spades for twelve tricks.

Copyright ©2013 Larry Matheny