IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

In duplicate bridge you hold the same cards as your opponent. While this reduces Lady Luck as a factor, it does not eliminate her altogether.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#14-01
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	QJ643
	K4
	J102
	542

	972
	832
	963
	QJ87

	1085
	Q106
	K8754
	96

	AK
	AJ975
	AQ
	AK103

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

Bidding: South opened with a forcing bid and North showed his spade suit. South’s rebid showed 25-27 high card points and North invited slam. Although holding nothing extra, South liked his hand and accepted the invitation.

Play: West led the queen of clubs and declarer counted 10 tricks: 5 spades, 2 hearts, 1 diamond, and 2 clubs. The extra tricks would have to come from the heart suit. He won the ace of clubs, unblocked the AK of spades, and then entered dummy with the king of hearts. He cashed his good spades discarding 1 diamond and 2 clubs. He then led a heart to his jack followed by the ace. With the kind distribution of the suit he now had 13 tricks. At another table West led a low club that sailed around to declarer’s 10. With 11 tricks this declarer simply played the ace and queen of diamonds to establish his 12^th trick.

So the declarer who received a trick on the opening lead ended with one less trick than the declarer who gained nothing from the opening lead. Luck is still a part of the game.

Copyright ©2014 Larry Matheny