IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny


Some hands offer many different chances to succeed.  Here is a beauty where declarer played very carefully to bring in his slam.

Scoring:  IMPs (Team Game)
Hand #14
Dlr   E
Vul N/S
S J6
H J3
D AQ1032
C A962
S 10982
H 52
D J875
C QJ4
    
S 743
H K10987
D 964
C 105

S AKQ5
H AQ64
D K
C K873
West North
East
South


Pass
2NT
   Pass    6NT    Pass
   Pass
   Pass
   Pass


 
BIDDING
:  Holding a singleton diamond, South's bid won't be to everyone's taste but he did have 21 high card points.  North did the math, added a point for his 5th diamond, and confidently raised to six.

PLAY:  West led the ten of spades and declarer stopped to count his tricks: 4 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds, and 2 clubs.  Additional tricks could come from a successful heart finesse, the diamond jack dropping, or a 3-2 club break.  He had few entries to dummy so he had to be very careful as he attempted to find the two extra tricks.  First he won the spade lead in his hand.  Next he cashed the diamond king followed by king and a low club won by West's jack.  Declarer now had eleven tricks.  The spade continuation was won in dummy followed by the ace and queen of diamonds.  When the jack did not drop, declarer led a low heart, closed his eyes, and played the queen from his hand.  That was twelve tricks and and ten IMPs when the opposing team failed to bid the slam.

There are several lessons here.  First, slow down and count your tricks.  Playing too quickly to trick one is a frequent mistake.  Next, make sure you use your entries in the correct order.  And finally, it's usually best to exhaust all other options before resorting to a finesse.

Copyright ©2009 Larry Matheny.