May 2018 - 60

Advanced Players

Mike's Advice
BY MIKE LAWRENCE

michaelslawrence.com

A typical matchpoint gargoyle
Dlr: East ♠ Q 4 3
Vul: E-W ♥ K 7 4 2
♦ A 10 5 3
♣K4
♠A92
♥ Q 10 9 8 3
♦QJ
♣Q75
West

North

1♣
1NT
Pass

Pass
Pass
4♥

East
Pass
1♠
Pass
All Pass

South
Pass
Pass
2♥

After a tenuous balancing bid of 2♥,
South found himself in game which,
charitably, has a play. Would you have
reached 4♥ as North-South? See the
postmortem for more on this.
Like it or not, you get to take over as
South and play this thing. West leads
the ♠8. What is your line?
Let's review the facts. The following
line of thinking should be part of your
routine: North-South have 23 HCP;
East-West have 17. These rate to be
divided approximately 12 for West and
5 for East. They could perhaps be 11 for
West and 6 for East.
The opening lead gives you ambiguous information. West might have the
♠K. But East might have it, too. West
could be leading the 8 from K-10-8
or K-J-8. He might also be leading it
from 8-7 doubleton. Which holding is
the most likely?
That's hard to fathom. One thing to
help you in your thinking is that if West
had the K-10-8 or perhaps the K-J-8,

60 Bridge Bulletin May 2018

he might have raised spades at some
point in the auction. This is a thin reed,
but it has some merit. If you think West
has the king, you can play the queen
and then go about your business. But
if East has it, you need to think along
different lines.
My instincts are that East has the
♠K J 10. If this is true, then West is
almost sure to have the ♦K. If this is
correct, how should you play?
Play low at trick one. East plays the
10. Should you win it or let East have
it? If you take the trick, West will get
in soon enough and will lead another
spade, which could give the defense
two spade tricks. Best is to let the
East's 10 win. Assuming East has the
♠K J 10, he can't lead another one, and
this gives you some time.
East has to lead something that isn't
a spade. Let's guess that East leads a
diamond. Not a bad choice because it
may set up a diamond trick for West.
Different leads will be handled differently, but all roads lead to the same
result. Here's the entire layout:
♠Q43
♥K742
♦ A 10 5 3
♣K4

♠85
♠ K J 10 7 6
♥AJ
♥65
♦K942
♦876
♣ A 10 8 6 3
♣J92
♠A92
♥ Q 10 9 8 3
♦QJ
♣Q75

You can see why South had to play
low at trick one. Had South won, West
would be in shortly and would lead a
spade, and 4♥ would be down. After
ducking the ♠10, the defense couldn't
hurt South because he now had time
to get rid of a spade loser, thanks to
dummy's ♦10. South is lucky to make
4♥ even after making the winning
decision at trick one.
Postmortem
The North-South bidding was not
very good. Matchpoints gone wild.
South had nothing to say on the first
two rounds of the bidding. He didn't
have an opening bid, and he didn't have
an overcall of 2♥ over East's 1♠ bid.
Did he have a 2♥ bid when 1NT was
passed to him? That was a dangerous
choice. It's the kind of bid that can
work, but if it goes wrong, South really
doesn't have an excuse.
North, in turn, was bidding too much.
North should have reflected that South
couldn't have much of a hand. South
passed in second seat and didn't overcall when East bid 1♠. On the third
round of the bidding South finally bid
2♥. One fact stands out: South does
not have opening-bid values. North
should have passed 2♥. South could
have six hearts to the ace and a side
queen. Even 2♥ might be too high.
North could have the best hand at the
table, but it doesn't rate to be good
enough for 4♥ to make.
The fact that 4♥ can be made with
good play doesn't mean 4♥ was a good
contract. Bad bidding all around.
◾
http://www.michaelslawrence.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2018
