Improve Your Play #34

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #34 with Larry Matheny

Finding the right bid with every hand isn't always possible and sometimes you put your partner in a difficult contract. Take a look at this hand.

Scoring: Matchpoints

Hand #34
Dlr	E
Vul	N-S

	763
	53
	AK872
	K104

	Q95
	AKQ74
	653
	J9

	K82
	J10962
	QJ10
	62

	AJ104
	8
	94
	AQ8753

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
1	DBL*	4	4
All Pass

*Negative

BIDDING: South held only eleven high card points (hcp) but his good distribution allowed him to open the bidding. West made a simple overcall and North was uncertain how to continue. Perhaps he should have bid 2

showing a good suit and at least ten hcp, however, in an effort to keep the bidding low, he chose to make a negative double. North hoped his partner could bid no-trump or perhaps rebid a good club suit. But, after East's preemptive leap to 4

, South bid a confident 4

expecting to find four spades in dummy.

PLAY: West led a top heart and continued the suit. South realized he could not afford to trump in his hand so he discarded a club. When West continued hearts, declarer was able to trump this one in dummy. South now led a spade to his ten and West's queen. West was relentless and led a fourth heart and South had no choice but to trump in his hand and hope the remaining spades behaved. Accordingly, he led a diamond to the ace and led dummy's last spade. He put in the jack and when both opponents followed, he pulled the remaining trumps with the ace. It turns out all he needed was a 3-3 spade break along with split spade honors.

Note this was a pairs event, so South's score of +620 beat those in a more sedate 5