IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

There is often more than one way to take a finesse and this hand offers an interesting option.  Take a look

Scoring:  Pairs Game (Matchpoints)

Hand #16
Dlr   E
Vul E/W
S 10986
H AK
D 1072
C AQ84
S J3
H Q752
D 985
C J1097
    
S 72
H 109843
D J643
C K5

S AKQ54
H J6
D AKQ
C 632
West North
 East
 South


 Pass
 1S
   Pass     2NT     Pass
     3S
   Pass
     4C     Pass
     4D
   Pass
     4H     Pass
    4NT
   Pass
     5H     Pass
    5NT
   Pass
     6D     Pass
    6S
All Pass



BIDDING:  North's jump to 2NT was the Jacoby forcing spade raise.  South's rebid showed extras with a balanced or semi-balanced hand.  The next three bids showed controls and 4NT asked for aces.  South next asked about kings and when he discovered one was missing stopped at the small slam.

PLAY:  West led the jack of clubs and declarer didn't like what he saw.  He had two potential club losers and declarer did not think that West would have led away from a king when defending a slam.  Declarer gave himself the best chance.  First he won the ace, then he drew trumps in two rounds, followed by all of his red cards.  Then he led a low club toward dummy and after West followed with the nine, declarer played the queen.  This would win one of two ways:  although unlikely, a very sneaky West could have ducked the king or East could have been dealt the king doubleton.  In the second case, East would now be forced to return a red card giving declarer a sluff/ruff and the contract.  If East had another club to lead, the contract could not be made.

Note that simply taking the club finesse at trick one would be fatal.

Copyright ©2008 Larry Matheny.     stats