IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny
A good player must be
observant. There are hands where holding
a seven instead of a six might determine the success of the contract. This ability to remember each spot card is
important both for declarers and defenders.
Here is a hand where the declarer was up to the task.
Scoring: Matchpoints
(Pairs)
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BIDDING: North-South
had a routine auction to game.
PLAY: West led the six of
diamonds ducked to East’s queen. East
didn’t think a diamond continuation was best so he shifted to the three of
hearts. Declarer knew this wouldn’t be
easy since he could count only five top tricks.
At trick two declarer played the queen of hearts and when West followed with the
ten, the layout of the suit became clear.
He was careful to unblock the seven of hearts from dummy and continue
with a spade to the ace. Using his
entries to dummy economically, he next led the ten of clubs. West won the king and exited with a
spade. Declarer won with the king of
spades and continued with the jack of clubs to the queen. Now he led the nine of hearts forcing East to
cover with the king. A diamond to the
ace put declarer back in dummy and he played the five of hearts through the
eight in East’s hand. East played low and
the six was a winner giving declarer nine tricks: 2 spades, 4 hearts, 1 diamond,
and 2 clubs.
This
was not an easy hand and most 3NT contracts were defeated.
Copyright ©2010 Larry
Matheny