IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

When you play in a pairs event with matchpoint scoring you need to keep an eye out for the overtricks.  Sometimes it can even mean risking the contract.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (pairs)
 
Hand #17
Dlr  S
Vul none
S 106
H Q73
D J1082
C Q752
S KQJ
H 984
D A64
C 10986
    
S 975432
H J10
D Q53
C 43

S A8
H AK652
D K97
C AKJ
West North
 East
 South



2C
   Pass    2D    Pass  
    2NT  
   Pass
    3C*
    Pass 
    3H
   Pass
    4H All Pass
*Puppet Stayman

BIDDING:  After North's waiting bid of 2D, South's rebid of 2NT showed 22-24 HCP.  This auction could conceal a five card major so North used Puppet Stayman to discover if South held five hearts and game was soon reached.  (Puppet can uncover four and five card majors.)
 
PLAY:   Declarer won the opening spade lead and assuming hearts behaved, should only lose one spade and two diamonds.  He next looked for ways to improve on that.  The diamond finesse was obvious and discarding a loser on the queen of clubs was also a possibility.  The problem was insufficient entries to dummy.  After playing the ace and king of hearts, he followed with the ace, king, and jack of clubs.  This would succeed whenever the clubs divided 3-3 or when the person with only two clubs did not hold the last trump.  Having survived, South drew the last trump with dummy's queen and discarded his losing spade on the club queen.  He followed with the jack of diamonds and soon had twelve tricks. 

Note that declarer would go down only if the third club was ruffed and he had two diamond losers along with the spade.  This is not a play you would make in a team game where overtricks are of lesser value.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.