IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

The auction on some hands can be complex.  It is sometimes necessary for you to tell partner of a value or of your distribution, while with others you must ask.  Here is a hand where South worked hard to find what he needed.
 

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #52
Dlr   W
Vul E/W
S J8532
H 10972
D A7
C 95
S K7
H 4
D J1093
C AQ8762
    
S Q10964
H K3
D 8
C KJ1043

S A
H AQJ865
D KQ6542
C
West North
 East
 South
Pass
 Pass
 Pass
 1H
    2C     2H     3C     3D
   Pass
     3H     4C     4D
   Pass
     4H    Pass
     4S
   Pass
     5D    Pass
     6H
   Pass
    Pass
    Pass
                                                                     
                                                                     
BIDDING:  South held a great hand and was delighted when he received a heart raise.  Next he bid diamonds twice to show the importance of that suit but North kept putting on the brakes.  Finally North was able to cue bid the ace of diamonds at the five level.

PLAY:  West led the ace of clubs ruffed by declarer.  The contract was safe but this was a pairs event so declarer went after the overtrick.  At trick two declarer led a diamond to dummy's ace and took the successful heart finesse and ended up with all thirteen tricks.  Since the possibility of a diamond ruff was present, if this had been a team game or rubber bridge, declarer would have played safe and cashed the ace of trumps at trick two.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.