Matchpoint Declarer Play — by Greg Coles

When playing matchpoints there is a lot more to consider than just making your contract. Assuming you are in a "normal" contract going searching for overtricks is what separates the winners from the also-rans. There are even occasions where it is worth risking your contract in order to get an overtrick or two. I won't go into the particulars on that here but suffice to say when you know a contract is cold don't stop looking for more.

The thing I really loved about this hand is that it is actually quite a simple one but in both the bidding and play several important concepts were demonstrated very well.

	K 8 6 5 4 3 A J 10 9 3 A 5
None Vul	A 7 4 2 A K 2 K 8 6 6 4 3

West Pass Pass

North 1 3 NT

East Pass Pass All Pass

South 1 1 NT

3 NT by South

First a couple of notes about the bidding. The 1 opening and 1 response are both pretty standard. Some may question why opener skipped over 1 to rebid 1NT. The reasoning is when a hand is very flat it generally plays better in no trump. I will therefore frequently bypass a four card major with a hand such as this unless it is a very strong suit. For instance change to hand to AKJ9 K62 K86 643 and I might consider rebidding 1. Also note the jump straight to 3NT by responder. This is an excellent bid. With 12 points and such an excellent 5 card suit merely inviting with that hand would be merely inviting a bad result!

And now to the play. I received the opening lead of the 3. This was nice to see as a club lead may have made things tricky if the diamond finesse was not working. So it is now time to stop and count our tricks. We have two sure tricks in both spades and hearts with not much chance of developing more. We have one trick in clubs with virtually no chance of developing more. And finally we have two top tricks in diamonds that we can develop into four tricks for sure by forcing out the Q. This brings us to a total of 9 tricks and if the diamond finesse is working we should make a tenth.

With that plan in place I played low from dummy and won the first trick with my A. The reason I did this is that I wanted to maintain the extra entry to dummy. I then played my K on which I played the 9 from dummy! First note with a combination similar to the diamonds here you always cash a high honour first just in case the queen is singleton. Secondly, why did I play the 9? The reason I did this is that I wanted to be able to remain in my hand to repeat what I was hoping would be a successful diamond finesse. Therefore my next play was the 8 followed with the 7, 3 and 2 (East had played high-low to signal count to her partner). The 3-2 split in diamonds had made my careful play unnecessary but it was still fun to do! Now that I knew the diamond finesse had worked I was up to ten tricks - time to go looking for number eleven.

I now played my last diamond to Dummy's ace and played my last two good diamonds discarding a low club and a low spade from hand.

Here were my remaining cards with 7 tricks to go:

	K 6 5 4 3 — A 5
	7 4 A K 2 — 6 4

I now played the 3 from dummy and when East followed with the 8 I played the 2! What I was hoping for was a 3-3 heart split and by losing a trick early it gave me the ability to test the hearts without giving up the lead after playing my heart stoppers. West won the trick with the 9 and returned the Q which was won perforce with the K. I now played two rounds of hearts noting the 3-3 split. Now I was able to play a club to dummy's A and get my eleventh trick with the 6. The score of 460 was a near top in a very strong field.

The full deal:

	K 8 6 5 4 3 A J 10 9 3 A 5
Q 9 3 Q 9 7 Q 7 4 K J 10 2		J 10 6 5 J 10 8 5 2 Q 9 8 7
	A 7 4 2 A K 2 K 8 6 6 4 3