IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

When declaring a bridge hand, it is important to develop a plan as early as possible. While many hands are easy, some present possible pitfalls that can be avoided with careful play.

Scoring: IMPs (Teams)

#13-05
Dlr	W
Vul	E/W

	Q84
	KQ5
	K109732
	A

	K103
	J10943
	J
	Q963

	J65
	A8
	Q84
	J10872

	A972
	762
	A65
	K54

West	North	East	South
Pass	1	Pass	1
Pass	2	Pass	2NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

Bidding: Sitting South in a team game, I invited game and partner accepted.

Play: West led the jack of hearts covered by the king and ace. A heart came back and I won the third round as East discarded a club. The problem seemed clear: I needed only five diamond tricks and I could not allow West to gain the lead. Looking closer, I also saw some transportation issues so I unblocked the ace of clubs before playing a low diamond. East followed with the diamond four so I won the ace followed by a low one toward dummy. West showed out so I ducked the trick to East. After winning the queen, East shifted to a low spade and I won the ace. It was now a simple task to cash my king of clubs followed by a diamond to the king. This gave me nine tricks: 1 spade, 1 heart, 5 diamonds, and 2 clubs.

Note if I had not unblocked dummy’s ace of clubs early, I would have had no way to get to back to my king of clubs. This illustrates how important it is to develop a plan before playing to the first trick.

Copyright ©2013 Larry Matheny