IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

The bidding in pairs events is usually very aggressive but the same contract is often reached at several tables.  Here is a hand where there were very few identical scores.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)
 
Hand #5
Dlr   E
Vul BOTH
S J9
H AQ102
D K94
C K1093
S K87532
H 75
D A853
C A
    
S AQ
H 963
D J10762
C 875

S 1064
H KJ84
D Q
C QJ642
West North
 East
 South


 Pass
 Pass
   1S    DBL     Pass    3H
All Pass
  
   
  


BIDDING:  After West bid 1S , North made a takeout double.  South jumped to 3H to show 9-11 points and that ended the auction.  He chose hearts rather than clubs because the scoring favors the major suits.

PLAY:  Poor South never had a chance.  West led his singleton ace of clubs and East, seeing the king in dummy, suspected it was a short-suit lead and followed with the eight to suggest a spade entry.  West obediently shifted to a low spade that East won with the queen.  Next, he lead a club for West to ruff and then regained the lead with another spade.  A second club ruff followed and West ended the bloodbath by cashing the ace of diamonds.  Most pairs ended up playing in heart and spade partials with varying results.  For this E/W pair, defeating the contract two tricks for a  score of +200 earned most of the matchpoints.  Of course, there was one E/W pair who reached the cold contract of 4S for +620.  I don't even want to guess how their auction went. 

There are a couple of points of interest.  First, the lead of an unsupported (no king) ace is not a popular lead so East suspected it was a singleton.  Next, by gambling to win the first spade with the queen, East was able to regain the lead and give his partner a second club ruff.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.