IMPROVE YOUR PLAY #06-02 with Larry Matheny

It's probably safe to say that most bridge players enjoy declaring more than defending.  However, since you defend approximately half of the hands, it pays to be a good defender.  Here is an interesting hand.

Scoring:  Matchpoints

Hand #2
Dlr  E
Vul N-S
S A1054
H 76
D 3
C QJ9832
S K93
H 432
D Q1087
C K105
    
S Q872
H K109
D J654
C 76

S J6
H AQJ85
D AK92
C A4
West North
 East
 South


Pass
 1H
    Pass     1S    Pass
     3D
    Pass
     3H    Pass
     4H
All Pass


  
BIDDING:   Holding 19 high card points, South wasn't sure what to rebid.  His choices were 2D, 2NT, or an aggressive 3D.   He finally decided to force to game with his jumpshift.  Now the problem swung to North.  He could bid 3NT or since it sounded like his partner had a red two-suiter, give a preference to hearts.   He finally decided his diamond shortness would be helpful in a heart contract and chose 3H and South continued on to game.

PLAY:  West realized South would very likely need to ruff diamonds in dummy so he led a trump.  It was now East's turn to shine.  He realized if declarer ruffed a diamond in dummy, his king would later be a winner.  Accordingly, he played the nine at trick one.  South won with the jack and played ace and a second diamond ruffed with dummy's last trump.  South next led the club queen for a finesse.  West won the king and made the killing shift to the king of spades.  South was now doomed as he could not avoid the loss of a spade, the heart king, and the nine of diamonds.  If West leads any card other than the spade king, declarer has ten tricks.  Note a low spade would lose to East's queen but declarer would unblock the jack and later finesse the spade ten to discard a loser on the spade ace.  If West did not dislodge the spade ace, declarer would merely play ace and another trump and discard his losers on the club suit.

The successful declarers ended in 3NT which cannot be defeated. 

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.