IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #06-08 with Larry Matheny

The old saying goes, " The five level belongs to the opponents", and while that is usually true, sometimes it pays to be up there yourself.  Here is an example from a recent tournament.

Scoring:  Matchpoints

Hand #8
Dlr  N
Vul N-S
S 105
H K72
D A8
C 1087543
S J963
H J
D QJ109632
C K
    
S AQ874
H 109
D K54
C QJ6

S K2
H AQ86543
D 7
C A92
West North
 East
 South

Pass
 1S 4H
   4S     5H All Pass    

BIDDING:  After East opened the bidding, I leaped to 4H in an attempt to buy the contract.  However, West continued on to 4S and my partner found a good raise to 5H.

PLAY:  West led the queen of diamonds that I won in dummy.  I expected the spade ace to be on my right but I still had two club losers.  One solution was an elimination play.  At trick two I led a spade from dummy and East hopped up with the ace.  As I expected, he continued with a second diamond that I ruffed.  Next I drew two round of trumps followed by the spade king.  With spades and diamonds eliminated, I played a low club from my hand.  West won the king and had no choice but to play a diamond or a spade allowing me to ruff in dummy and discard my losing club.  Making five was a very good result.

It was important to avoid ruffing the diamond until the spade was played because an astute defender in the East chair may have spotted the pending club end-play and exited with a club after winning the spade ace.   Also note that it would not help West to discard the club king on the second trump to avoid the end play.  I still had an entry to dummy to allow me to lead the ten of clubs to finesse East.  And, if the outstanding clubs were 2-2, I would only have one club loser.  And finally, if either opponent held the KQJ of clubs, I was going down.  This was a fun hand.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.