IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

 

It’s not always possible to obtain a complete picture of the opponents’ distribution but you can often discover enough to allow you to play the odds.

 

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#10-48

Dlr

W

Vul

E/W

S

KJ104

H

764

D

A74

C

Q107

S

87

H

KJ83

D

KQ1095

C

63

  pad  

S

Q963

H

92

D

J32

C

K542

 

S

A52

H

AQ105

D

86

C

AJ98

West

North

East

South

   Pass

  Pass

   Pass

   1NT

   Pass

   2H

  Pass

   2H

    Pass     3NT        Pass     Pass

    Pass

  

 

 

BIDDING:  North-South had an easy auction to game.

 

PLAY:  West led the queen of diamonds asking East to unblock the jack if he held that card.  South won the third round of the suit discarding a heart from his hand.  Declarer needed the club finesse so he led the ten followed by the queen and brought in that suit.  On the last two clubs, West played the eight and the three of hearts indicating possession of the king.  Since it was unlikely West would discard down to the singleton king, declarer was confident West’s distribution was 2=4=5=2.  While this did not mean the queen of spades had to be in the East hand, the odds were 4-2 that it was.  So declarer played a spade to dummy’s king and then led the jack.  He now had his nine tricks.

Perhaps West should not have given away so much information. 

 

 

Copyright ©2010 Larry Matheny