IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

A good declarer will develop a plan for the entire hand before playing to trick one.  It is important to review the bidding and try to place the missing high cards.  This hand is a great example of those techniques.

Scoring:  Pairs (Matchpoints)
 
Hand #20
Dlr  E
Vul none
S KQ5
H Q104
D J1094
C K52
S 82
H J9762
D  
C AJ9864
    
S AJ94
H A5
D 873
C QJ73

S 10763
H  K83
D AKQ652
C
West North
 East
 South


1C 1D
   1H    2D    Pass      3D
   5C   Pass
    Pass
     5D
  Pass
   Pass
    DBL
 All Pass


BIDDING:  The auction started slowly but quickly picked up speed.  North had a good hand and perhaps should have made a game try.  West mentioned his weak heart suit before leaping to game.  North should have doubled to stop his partner from bidding again but South with very little defense, bid one more.  East who had started the auction doubled to end it.

PLAY:   West made the unfortunate lead of  the ace of clubs.  Declarer saw he was in danger of losing two spades and one heart.  A review of the auction told him the two missing aces were in the East hand.  He saw a way to possibly eliminate one of his losers.  He ruffed the ace of clubs with a high trump and led a low diamond to dummy.  He then led a low heart toward his hand and East made the fatal error of ducking this trick as South won the king.  Declarer now led another diamond to dummy, discarded a heart on the king of clubs, and ruffed dummy's last club in his hand.  He next drew the last trump and led a heart to dummy's ten and East was endplayed.  He had to either lead a spade or give declarer a ruff and a sluff.  Hoping his partner held the spade ten, East led a low spade.  South won with the ten and conceded a spade to the ace.  Making five doubled was the top score.

East must see the end play coming and rise with the heart ace when the suit is first led.  It is unlikely that this play will cost and it will avoid the ending that occurred.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.