Improve Your Play #50

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #50 with Larry Matheny

Executing a good play at bridge is very rewarding, but it can be hazardous to your health to brag about it. Here is a good example:

Scoring: Matchpoints

Hand #50
Dlr	N
Vul	N-S

	J943
	Q853
	A4
	J53

	KQ62
	J
	K10832
	K76

	75
	2
	QJ765
	Q10982

	A108
	AK109764
	9
	A4

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	4
Pass	Pass	4NT	Pass
5	5	All Pass

BIDDING: I was sitting South with a very nice hand and after my partner passed and East passed, I opened 4

. My hand was perhaps too good for this bid but I wanted to make it difficult for the opponents to enter the auction. Unfortunately, East competed with 4NT showing both minors. After West took a preference to diamonds, my partner ended the auction with 5

. Note the vulnerability made it easier for East-West to compete.

PLAY: West led a diamond and I counted three possible losers, two spades and one club. I needed to find one of the spade honors in the East hand but after she showed length in both minors, it was very likely that West held them both. My solution was to attempt an elimination play. I won the diamond ace and ruffed dummy's other diamond in my hand. I then drew trumps in one round and played ace and another club. West won with the king and played another club which I trumped. Now I only had to lead a trump to dummy and pass the jack of spades. West won but was end played. He had to lead a spade or give me a sluff and a ruff allowing me to discard my other spade loser. I thought, "I love this game".

At dinner between sessions I casually asked my friend her result on the hand and she said, "West led the king of spades so I was able to discard my losing club on dummy's fourth spade and made six. What did you do"? I took another bite and said, "Okay, what about the next hand". I thought, "I hate this game".

Note that West erred by winning the second club. He must allow East to win the trick and return a spade to break up the end play. Also note that East-West's 5

contract will go down only two tricks for -300 and that's a good sacrifice over 4