IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
With Larry Matheny
We all know the
importance of watching which aces, kings, and other high honors have been
played, but it’s also important to keep any eye on the intermediate cards.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
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Bidding: North made a
Support Double to show three spades.
South competed to the 3-level to end the auction.
Play: West
led the ten of diamonds and declarer ruffed the continuation. Declarer saw the contract was safe with only
4 possible losers (1 spade, 2 hearts, and 1 diamond) so his thoughts went to
finding an overtrick. At trick three he
led the king of spades won by East.
Diamonds were continued and declarer ruffed and stopped to consider his
options. It seemed likely West held both
heart honors for his raise. After
drawing the last trumps, declarer played three rounds of clubs discarding a
heart. Next he ruffed the last club in
his hand as West discarded his last diamond.
Now with the minor suits eliminated, he tried to sneak through the ten
of hearts. But West accurately covered
with the queen and declarer won the king.
Things looked bad for declarer until he noticed that East had followed
with the eight of hearts. Declarer had a
good count on the hand and knew the East probably held only two hearts so he
continued with another heart from dummy and was delighted when East followed
with the nine. The jack lost to the ace
but the seven of hearts was the overtrick.
He lost only 1 spade, 1 heart, and 1 diamond for a good matchpoint
score.
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