November 2005 - 42

PLAY BRIDGE

Bridge
Player's
Survival
Kit
Leslie Shafer
slamhand@verizon.net

What's the hold-up?
When your partner leads her long
suit against a notrump contract, it's
your duty to lead the suit back when
you get in. Declarer knows this,
and will usually delay winning his
high card in the suit partner leads
until you don't have any left to
lead back! This method is called a
hold-up play. Look at this deal (you
are South in 3NT on the lead of the
K):
Dlr: North  A 10 3
Vul: N-S  7 5 2
83
A Q 6 3 2
J64
K9875
N
 K Q J 10 9
43
W E
542
A 7 6
S
74
 10 9 5
Q2
A 8 6
 K Q J 10 9
KJ8
Result: Making four - plus 630
for North-South.
Knowing that he could take only
seven winners without the diamond
suit, South held up taking his A
until the third trick. He then led
diamonds, hoping that East (who
had no more hearts) had the A.
Declarer lost two hearts and one
diamond, making four.
The good news: If declarer
had won the first trick and led a
diamond, the defense would have
taken four hearts and the A for a
42

one-trick set. By holding up, South
made his contract with an overtrick.
The bad news: If South had
won the second heart trick and led
a diamond, he would have made
another overtrick. Since this deal
was played in a club duplicate
game, the lost overtrick was very
important. It's worth noting, of
course, that if West started with four
hearts rather than five, the double
hold-up would be necessary to
preserve one overtrick. East might
help you decide by signaling to
indicate how many hearts she holds.
The question: Short of having
to visualize all the possible heart
distributions East-West could have,
is there a way South could know
how long to hold up?
The answer: The rule of seven!
By looking at the number of cards
that dummy and declarer have in the
danger suit, you can calculate how
long you should probably hold up.
Here's when it works: You're
in 3NT but: a) you have only one
stopper in the danger suit; b) you
must give up the lead once to make
your contract and c) you won't lose
any other aces when you give up the
lead.
Here's how it works: Subtract
from seven the total number of
cards held by dummy and declarer
in the danger suit. The answer is the
number of tricks you should let the
defense win before taking


Answers to Mike's
Bidding Quiz
Just as there is confusion about
what you need to double and then bid
a new suit, there is uncertainty about
what it takes to double and then bid
notrump.
You have already seen that doubling
and bidding a new suit promises a
big hand. You need around 18 to 20
points.
For example, you would double 1
and then bid spades with this hand:
K Q J 9 8 7 A Q A J 9 5 3.
You would fear (correctly) that a
1 overcall, might be passed and
game missed when partner has a few
points and spade support.
The same theme exists when you
bid notrump after an opening bid by
your right-hand opponent.
Say that East opens 1 and you
have this hand:
K J 3 10 8 A J 8 7 A K J 2.
You would open this hand with
1NT, showing 15-17 HCP, and you
should overcall 1NT with it as well.
Usually I present a group of hands
for your consideration. We'll start with
just one this month because there are
some important principles to discuss.
First, here are some general rules.
*	 If	 you	 double	 and	 then	 bid	 a	 suit,	
you promise a strong hand.
*	 If	 you	 double	 and	 then	 bid	
notrump, you promise a bit more
than a 1NT overcall.
In both of these situations, your
partner will think you have extra
points - and partner will bid as if
you have them. If you promise extra
values and you do not provide them
and you go down, it is usually your
bidding, not your partner's, that causes
you to get a bad result.
Here is a hand and an auction.
Decide if you like the bidding and
then read the discussion. You are
South.
K Q A J 10 7 Q J 8  J 10 8 2
West
North
East
South
1
Dbl
Pass
1
Pass
1NT
All Pass
How do you like this bidding?
South's bidding is bad. He is
right to want to bid something, but
Bridge Bulletin
Bulletin
The Bridge
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2005
