IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

 

An auction may be simple or quite complex.  This one nearly ran the E/W pair out of Pass cards.

 

 

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#10-43

Dlr

E

Vul

E/W

S

Q8643

H

KQ102

D

6

C

KQ2

S

95

H

974

D

1095

C

J9654

  pad  

S

2

H

J865

D

QJ432

C

873

 

S

AKJ107

H

A3

D

AK87

C

A10

West

North

East

South

 

  

   Pass

    2C

  Pass

    2D

   Pass

    2S

   Pass       4D       Pass       4NT

   Pass       5D       Pass       5H

   Pass       6C       Pass       6H

   Pass       7S       Pass      Pass

   Pass

 

 

BIDDING:  Here is a summary of the N/S bidding:  The 2D response was game forcing denying a good suit.  After South showed spades, North jumped in diamonds to show spade support and diamond shortness.  South’s 4NT bid was Roman Keycard Blackwood (4 aces +king of spades) and North denied holding any of these cards.  South who held all five keycards then bid 5H to ask North if he held the queen of spades.  North replied he did and he also held the king of clubs.  Next South asked North if he was also fortunate enough to possess the king of hearts and North jumped to seven to answer yes. 

 

PLAY:  West led a trump and South soon claimed all of the tricks.  It’s true there were also thirteen tricks in notrump but South felt he might have to ruff diamonds in dummy.

 

 

 

Copyright ©2010 Larry Matheny