Improve Your Play #06-35

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

While there are many conventions to help you reach the best contract, sometimes using them can be fatal. Take a look at this one.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #35
Dlr	E
Vul	N-S

	102
	K8
	KQJ83
	AJ96

	KJ9876

	62
	Q10853

	54
	J109532
	104
	742

	AQ3
	AQ764
	A975
	K

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
2*	DBL	2	Pass
Pass	3	Pass	3
Pass	4	Pass	6NT
All Pass

*Michael's Cue bid

BIDDING: West's cue bid showing spades and a minor certainly started something. North doubled to deny heart support but show a good hand. East ran to 2

and hoped for the best. With no clear direction, South passed to see what North would do next. After hearing 3

from his partner, South forced again with a cue bid. North next showed clubs and South leaped to the slam to protect the spade queen from the opening lead.

PLAY: West guessed to lead a low club won by South's king. Declarer could count eleven tricks and was fairly confident from the bidding that the hearts would break badly. However, West was marked with both the spade king and the club queen so an endplay might be possible. First, declarer played the top three honors confirming the bad heart break. Next, he played all five diamonds and with the lead in dummy, was down to this ending: North:

102

AJ South:

AQ3

7. West was doomed; his last four cards were:

Q10. Declarer could play ace and another spade for a club return or the ace and another club for a spade return. Either way, declarer would make his slam. Without the revealing 2

cue bid, declarer might have tried to make the contract by taking the spade finesse.

This is not to say you should not use the Michael's cue bid or other tools, but rather realize that like the preempt, they are double-edged swords which may cut you. Note 7