IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #51 with Larry Matheny

When defending you must stay alert and be aware of declarer's game plan.  If not, you could allow a bad contract to succeed.  Take a look at this one.

Scoring:  Matchpoints

Hand #51
Dlr  N
Vul E-W
S 876
H AJ
D AQ73
C AJ32
S KQ1094
H Q1083
D J4
C Q9
    
S A2
H K97642
D K1092
C 8

S J53
H 5
D 865
C K107654
West North
 East
 South

1NT
Pass
 3C*
All Pass
 
        
   
  



*Weak

BIDDING:  My partner in the North chair opened 1NT and I bid 3C to show a weak hand with a long suit.  The opponents wanted to enter the auction but the unfavorable vulnerability scared them off.  Note they can make 4H.

PLAY:  West led the king of spades and East overtook with the ace to play a second one.  West captured the second and third round of spades and after seeing East's encouraging signal of the heart 9, switched to a low heart.  I had lost three tricks and still had two possible diamond losers.  I rose with the ace of hearts and drew trumps in two rounds.  I then ruffed dummy's last heart to my hand to lead a low diamond.  West played the four and I let my five run around to East.  He won the trick but was end played.  He must return a diamond into the AQ or give me a sluff and a ruff to discard the other losing diamond from my hand.

I'm sure you have noticed that West erred by not playing his jack of diamonds on my five.  He knew I had no more spades or hearts so his partner would be in bad shape after winning the first diamond.  The play of the jack leaves me with two diamond losers and I'm down one.  If I held the diamond nine or ten in either hand, the end play could not be prevented.  Those spot cards are important.  Also note that East must hope his partner holds the heart queen and duck when the jack is led from dummy.  If he plays the king, he will be end-played into returning a diamond or concede a ruff/sluff.  Defense is not easy.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.