June 2016 - 51

Intermediate Players

Mike's Bridge Lesson
BY MIKE LAWRENCE

michaelslawrence.com

Planning ahead
by North showed one key card. The
agreement used here was:

Dlr: South ♠ 9 5 4 3 2
Vul: N-S ♥ A 2
♦K3
♣ Q 10 5 4

Double shows zero or three key
cards.

♠KQ876
♥K
♦AQ854
♣AK
West

North

Pass
3♠
5♥
Pass
All Pass

East
4♥
Pass

Pass shows one or four key cards.
5♠, the first legal bid, shows two
key cards.
South
1♠
4NT
6♠

South wondered if he should open
2♣, but decided that the singleton ♥K
might be worthless. He opened 1♠ and
got a limit raise of 3♠ from partner.
This bid promises four-card support,
so South was pretty pleased with his
hand. East came in with 4♥. South
wasn't bothered much. He just asked
for aces.
West joined in with 5♥, no doubt
trading on the vulnerability. North
passed.
What would you do as South? The
answer depends on your agreements.
If partner's pass is meaningless, South
has to guess what to do. Fortunately,
this North-South pair had a way to
cope with the opponent's bid. The pass

South knew that North had one key
card, and that was enough for South to
bid 6♠, which ended the auction. West
led a heart. Before the dummy came
down, South was annoyed that East
had bid because it sounded like the defenders had the ♥A. South would have
liked to have been able to get rid of his
singleton heart, and that wasn't going
to happen. But when dummy came
down, South noted that he was solid in
every suit. Except spades.
If spades divided 2-1, there wouldn't
be a problem, but if they divided 3-0,
the slam might be in trouble.
South didn't think that West would
have the ♠A J 10 because he didn't
double 6♠. But East might have the
♠A J 10. So South won the first heart
in his hand and went to dummy with
the ♦K. When he led a spade to his
hand, East played the 10 and South
won his king. And West? He showed
out, discarding a heart.
Things weren't so rosy now. South

needed to lead another spade from
dummy, and the only way to get there
was to ruff a diamond. So he led the
♦A and quickly learned that this line
wasn't going to work. East ruffed the
ace and that was the end of the contract. The ♠A was the second trick for
the defense. Here is the entire deal:
♠95432
♥A2
♦K3
♣ Q 10 5 4
♠-
♠ A J 10
♥865
♥ Q J 10 9 7 4 3
♦ J 10 9 7 6
♦2
♣J9762
♣83
♠KQ876
♥K
♦AQ854
♣AK
"Looks like we should have doubled
5♥," said North. "It would have gone
down a lot. I think we can set it four
tricks."
"You have to unblock your ♥K
and ♥A to stop me from ruffing two
spades," said East, "and that won't be
easy."
"I think it would be better for us if
I made 6♠," said South. "All I had to
do was win the ♥A at trick one. Then
I'll lead a spade to my hand and go to
dummy with the ♦K for another spade
play. My ♥K was an illusion. I had all
the tricks I needed without it."
◾

June 2016 Bridge Bulletin

51
http://www.michaelslawrence.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2016
