IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

Some hands are won by good declarer play or great defense. Others are won in the auction.

Scoring: Teams (Imps)

#14-03
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	AQJ874
	KQ3
	J103
	7

	6
	10987
	Q976
	KQ98

	5
	6542
	842
	J10652

	K10932
	AJ
	AK5
	A43

West	North	East	South
-	-	Pass	1
Pass	2NT	Pass	3
Pass	4	Pass	4NT
Pass	5	Pass	5
Pass	6	Pass	7
Pass	Pass	Pass

Bidding: North’s 2NT response was a game forcing spade raise. The 3 rebid showed 17+ points and North’s 4 cue bid showed first or second round control in that suit. South next used Roman Keycard Blackwood to discover if North held the ace of spades. The diamond response showed one keycard and the follow-up 5 bid asked if North also held the queen of spades. The heart response indicated possession of the queen along with the king of hearts. This also denied the king of clubs so South now knew the club cue bid was a singleton or void. Realizing North had to hold some other red honors, South bid the grand slam.

Play: West led the ten of hearts to declarer’s ace. Next he drew trumps and then discarded his losing diamond on dummy’s queen of hearts. It was left only to ruff his two clubs in dummy and the grand was wrapped up.

The team at the other table stopped in 6.

Copyright ©2014 Larry Matheny