Improve Your Play #06-27

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

When playing in a matchpoint (pairs) event, overtricks are very important. Take a look at this hand.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #27
Dlr	N
Vul	E/W

	103
	A986
	A98
	9876


	J1075
	KQJ2
	AJ1043

	654
	43
	107653
	Q52

	AKQJ9872
	KQ2
	4
	K

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	2
Pass	3*	Pass	6
All Pass

*Control showing

BIDDING: Holding a hand with around nine winners, South opened with a strong, artificial 2

. This partnership uses control showing responses (ace=2, king=1) and 3

showed four. This meant either two aces, one ace and two kings, or four kings. It was easy to determine North's holding so 6

was quickly reached.

PLAY: West led the diamond king and declarer immediately saw his only loser was a club. If East held the club ace, declarer could try to score his king by sneaking a club past him. Or, he could find the hearts 3-3 and discard his club on the last heart. However, there was a better plan. If the person who held four (or more) hearts also held the ace of clubs, he could be squeezed. Accordingly, after winning the first trick South ran all of his trumps coming down to a four-card ending. Dummy kept four hearts and declarer three hearts and the king of clubs. Since West was unable to keep four hearts and the ace of clubs, he eventually pitched his ace hoping his partner held the king. This gave South his overtrick and a good score.

There is often more than one way to play a hand and the careful declarer will look for the best chance to succeed.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.