Improve Your Play #24

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #24 with Larry Matheny

Most players agree that defense is one of the most difficult areas of bridge. However, using the basic techniques of remembering the bidding and reading the opening lead can help. Take a look at this hand from a team game..

SCORING: IMPs

Hand #24
Dlr	W
Vul	E-W

	85
	1042
	AJ52
	J873

	J1074
	A9
	K1063
	A62

	K2
	KQJ87
	4
	KQ954

	AQ963
	653
	Q987
	10

West	North	East	South
1	Pass	1	1
Pass	Pass	3	Pass
3NT	All Pass

BIDDING: I held the South hand and made a light overcall of 1

. East forced with 3

and West bid 3NT. A 3

bid by West was an alternative and would have led to a better contract.

PLAY: North led the eight of spades and it was clear he held a doubleton. My partner would have led low from three small and the bidding made it unlikely West had five spades. REVIEWING THE AUCTION, partner undoubtedly held one of the missing high honors. If declarer had them all he would have opened 1NT, and without at least three of them, he would not have an opening bid. If partner held either the heart or club ace, we were not going to defeat the hand. However, if he held good diamonds we had a chance. Since I had no other entries to my hand, when declarer called for a small spade from dummy, I won the queen and shifted to a low diamond. This hit pay dirt when declarer played the ten and partner won the jack. North returned his last spade to my ace and I continued diamonds. We ended up with two spade tricks and four diamonds to defeat the hand two tricks. There was nothing difficult about the hand but it was important to realize the spade suit was going to establish two tricks for declarer and only two for us.

At the other table, our partners reached the superior contract of 4