Improve Your Play #06-32

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

You need skill to be successful at the bridge table but it also helps to have a little luck. Take a look at this one.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #32
Dlr	E
Vul	none

	A972
	KQ54
	965
	75

	543
	A3
	A873
	A1098

	1086
	10
	KJ42
	QJ643

	KQJ
	J98762
	Q10
	K2

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

*Limit plus raise

BIDDING: This was a typical matchpoint (pairs) sequence with each side fighting for a plus score. South opened a rather weak hand but had six hearts. Holding three aces West felt obligated to make a takeout double and North's jump showed ten or more support points with four or more hearts. East thought he had just enough high card points to enter the auction and South showed a minimum hand by trying to stop at 3

. West wasn't through and carried on to the four level. North's pass showed no extras and South with little defense and expecting 4

to make, bid 4

hoping to go down only one trick.

PLAY: West was in trouble right away. He hated to lead an ace and certainly didn't want to underlead one; he finally settled on the club ace. East discouraged with the club three but West continued the suit. After winning the king, declarer led a low heart toward dummy. West made another mistake by playing low as the king won the trick. Next declarer played four rounds of spades discarding a diamond as West ruffed. Making 4

was a top result.

There were many mistakes on this hand. West ignored his partner's discouraging card at trick one and then failed to win the first heart trick. Since it was very likely South held six hearts, dummy's spade suit was a threat. However, it's difficult to blame West too much because it's not clear that switching to the ace of diamonds would succeed. Of course, with spade values East might have played an unusually high club (queen) at trick one to encourage a shift to the higher of the other suits. One thing was clear, East did not want clubs continued.

Note that East-West can make 4

for +130 so South was right to bid on. Perfect defense would beat a 4