January 2013 - 56

Mike's Advice

Mike Lawrence
www.michaelslawrence.com

What's going on in spades?
Here is a hand that comes from the
world of counting. Playing against a
2/1 pair, you have this auction:
West North
1
Pass
All Pass

East
2

South
3

You are South, and you get to declare 3.
West leads the 5, the suit that they
have bid. These are the spades you
can see:
Dummy
8 4
You
6 3
You play low from dummy and East
wins the ace. Here are some questions
that any counter will know to ask. If
you routinely keep track of information, you should be able to answer
these questions.
Who has the A? Who has the K?
Who has the Q? Who has the 5?
Who has the 2? How do the spades
divide? Most important, how can you
tell?
Let's start with the A. East just
played it, so this question is a gimme.
56 Bridge Bulletin January 2013

Who has the K? West has it. How
can you tell? The answer is that if
East had the A and K, he would
win the first trick with the king, not
the ace. This is a standard technique
for defenders. When they are playing third hand to a trick, and if they
have an honor sequence, they play
the lowest card in their sequence. For
example with A-K-7-2, it is correct to
play the king.
With K-Q-7-2, it is correct to play
the queen. With Q-J-10-7-2, it is correct to play the 10. The idea is that
you want your partner to have a good
idea of what your holding is. If, with
the A-K-7-2, you take the first trick
with the ace, your partner won't know
that you have the king. Declarer might
have it for all your partner knows.
True, if you play the ace and continue
with the king, he will know, but if you
win the ace and shift to another suit,
he will spend the rest of the hand
wondering about that K.
West has the K because East's
play of the ace denies having the
king. This is a very strong clue since
a defender wants more than anything
to have an informed partner. Playing
phony cards is a good way confuse
your partner, and that is not what you
want.
So you know East has the ace because you saw it. You know West has
the king because East's play at trick
one denied it.
Who has the Q? Think about what
West led: a low card. You know he has
the king. What would he lead if he had
the king and queen? He would lead
the king. West does not have the Q.
East has it.

Who has the 5? West: You know
this because he led it.
Finally, who has the 2? This is
tougher but you can figure it out. Clue
No. 1: Notice the spade spots you
started with in your hand and dummy.
Clue No. 2: Remember the bidding.
West is known to have five spades
(he opened 1). He led the 5, which
is his fourth best. This means he has
three spades higher than the 5 and
one spade lower. Your dummy has the
4 and you have the 3. The only spade
that West can have lower than the 5 is
the 2.
West has something like K-J-9-5-2,
and East has something like A-Q-10-
7. West cannot have six spades for
two reasons. The first is that the spot
cards tell you that West has exactly
five. The second reason is that if West
had six spades, he would have bid
over 3. This is human nature, almost as strong a clue as there can be.
Believe it or not, there is another
important point you can learn from
what you see at trick one. East raised
1 to 2 with the A Q 10 7 (or so).
Then he passed when you bid 3.
East did not bid 3. He must have a
really bad hand. Almost certainly he
has something such as:
A Q 10 7 x x x x x x x x x.
If East had a doubleton or if he had
any extra values such as a jack or a
queen, he might have bid 3.
You should be able to use this
information in the play. Amazing
how much you can learn if you know
which questions to ask and how to
use the answers.
r
http://www.michaelslawrence.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2013
