IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

Too often the auction is forgotten once the play of the hand has begun. I recently declared this hand and found the bidding very helpful in placing the opponents’ cards

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)

#11-45
Dlr	E
Vul	None

	K6
	94
	J8765
	J1064

	Q973
	72
	A1042
	A95

	4
	Q865
	KQ9
	Q8732

	AJ10852
	AKJ103
	3
	K

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
Pass	Pass	DBL	3
Pass	4	Pass
Pass

BIDDING: I was in the South chair and loved my hand. I was disappointed when my partner passed my opening bid but after East reopened with a double, I quickly jumped to show this strong two-suiter. Recognizing the value of her king of spades and doubleton heart, my partner made an excellent raise to game. With three likely defensive tricks West considered a penalty double but finally passed.

PLAY: West led the ace of clubs followed by the ace of diamonds. He then played a low spade and dummy’s six won the trick. Remembering East’s takeout double I placed the heart length and the queen in his hand. So at trick four I played the nine of hearts and was not surprised when it won. I cashed the king of spades followed by another heart to my jack. Next, I led the ace of spades and conceded a trick to the queen.

East regretted not passing out the hand at one spade.

Copyright ©2011 Larry Matheny