IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

Counting is important for both declarer and the defenders. This hand shows how recalling the auction along with a little math can help find the best defense.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#13-42
Dlr	E
Vul	N/S

	KJ94
	J43
	8632
	Q2

	A87653
	A7
	K109
	75

	10
	1065
	J754
	J10986

	Q2
	KQ982
	AQ
	AK43

West	North	East	South
-	-	Pass	2NT
Pass	3	Pass	3
Pass	4	Pass	Pass
Pass

Bidding: South’s 2NT opener was a bit off-shape, but he wanted to describe his hand with one bid. North used Puppet Stayman (3) asking for a four or five-card major. South showed five hearts and North bid the game.

Play: West didn’t like any opening lead but finally selected the seven of clubs. Declarer saw a possible loser in each suit but realized at least one loser could be discarded on a good spade. He won the club lead in hand followed by the king of hearts. West won the ace and stopped to consider the hand. Since it was unlikely declarer had opened 2NT with a singleton spade, West continued with the ace and eight spades for East to ruff. The high eight spot was a suit preference signal asking for a return of the higher side suit. After trumping the spade, East returned a diamond. Declarer rose with the ace, drew trumps, and was able to discard a diamond and a club on the good spades. Declarer made his contract losing only the two aces and a spade ruff, but the ace of spades opening lead would have defeated the contract. However, most N/S pairs made eleven tricks losing only the two aces when the spade ruff wasn’t found. As you can see, it came down to simply counting the spades.

Copyright ©2013 Larry Matheny