Improve Your Play #06-12

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

As declarer, it's often correct to draw trumps right away but sometimes it's better to put them to good use. Take a look at this hand.

Scoring: Matchpoints (pairs)

Hand #12
Dlr	E
Vul	N-S

	KQ5
	Q875
	62
	A632

	A4
	106
	KQ43
	QJ1094

	8763
	942
	1085
	K87

	J1092
	AKJ3
	AJ97
	5

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
2	DBL*	Pass	2
Pass	3	Pass	4
All Pass

*Negative Double

BIDDING: After I opened the bidding, West made a rather poor overcall. A two-level overcall should show a much better suit and/or a better hand. My partner made a negative double showing one or both of the majors and we quickly reached game.

PLAY: West led the queen of clubs and I could count nine tricks: 3 spades, 4 hearts, 1 diamond, and 1 club. I could get a tenth by simply ruffing a diamond in dummy or a club in my hand, but this was matchpoint scoring so I looked around for an overtrick. I won the club in dummy and played one round of trumps. I then played a spade won by West. He continued clubs and I ruffed in my hand. Next I played a second round of trumps followed by three spades discarding a diamond from dummy. It didn't matter if the person with the last trump had been able to ruff, the diamond was a loser anyway. I then started cross-ruffing diamonds and clubs. The opponents won the last trick with the diamond king and the last trump.

Note if you draw two rounds of trumps before leading spades, the person with the spade ace might also hold the last trump and return it reducing your ruffing power.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.