Not Hard to Read

In yesterday’s club matchpoint game, I was faced with a tough bidding decision.

I held 

 

and heard this auction:

 

Tough bidding decision, only because of the form of scoring and the vulnerability.  At IMPs, I would double: so what if partner chooses to pass and the opponents can win, say, six club tricks and a side trick?  That is still +500 and it is possible that 3NT might not make our way.  At matchpoints, though, I obsessed with being +500 instead of +600 or +630.  I finally decided to bid 3NT to match the field and hope that I might gain on the play.

The ♣6 was led and partner tabled a disappointing dummy, not that I disagree with his auction. 

 

Remember: North is the declarer.

Unless I can run the diamond suit, I do not expect to make the hand.

West overtook the lead and continued clubs, my winning the ♣A at Trick 2 as East followed suit with the ♣2.  Ah, so West had rebid vulnerable 3♣ on only a six card suit. 

With clubs 6-2, I attacked diamonds by playing the ace and then finessing the jack.  The good news is that the ♦J held the trick.  The bad news is that West did not follow suit, but instead discarded a heart.  Surely the bidding marks West with the ♥A.  Not much to do now but cash the ♦K.  West discarded the ♠2. 

Unless West is some sort of evil genius, she discarded a spade because she did not possess another non-ace heart to discard.  That marks her with 4=2=1=6 distribution.  Not hard to read.  I played the ♠K, both following (with the six and the three, respectively).  And then dummy’s other spade, seeing the ♠T from West.  Both because possession of the ♠Q might make the heard bidding more likely and because spades are “known” to be 4-3, I finessed the ♠J.  When East followed suit small, the ♠A and ♠7 won tricks and I conceded down one.

As much as I wished I had doubled 3♣, down only one trick was a pretty good score.  3NT was certainly the normal contract and, just by taking clues that were pretty apparent (although, certainly, far from foolproof), taking the maximum of eight tricks matchpointed at 68+% .