IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

The opening lead is often very important. Sometimes you need to be aggressive while other times you must select a safe lead. I wish I had chosen aggressive on this one.

Scoring:  IMPs (Team Game)

#11-46
Dlr	E
Vul	None

	KQ63
	Q4
	AQJ6
	Q108

	10
	K972
	9842
	9654

	754
	A1053
	75
	J732

	AJ982
	J86
	K103
	AK

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1NT
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	4*	Pass	4
Pass	6	Pass	Pass
Pass

*RKC for spades

BIDDING: This N/S pair routinely opens 1NT with a 5-card major. After the Stayman sequence uncovered a spade fit, North jumped to four clubs to inquire about keycards (4 aces + king of spades). South admitted to two keycards without the queen of spades and North bid the slam.

PLAY: I was in the West chair and gave the opening lead a lot of thought. I don’t mind leading away from a king if that seems best, but here I thought the opponents were in a 4-4 spade fit with the suit breaking badly. Therefore I made the passive lead of the nine of diamonds. When South quickly drew trumps and discarded hearts on the queen of clubs and the jack of diamonds, I was very disappointed.

At the other table our partners had a more sophisticated auction that uncovered the lack of a heart control and they stopped in game. Unfortunately, this eleven IMP loss cost us first place in the event.

Copyright ©2011 Larry Matheny