July 2018 - 52

Intermediate Players

Mike's Bridge Lesson
BY MIKE LAWRENCE

michaelslawrence.com

Sorting out the best defense
Matchpoints, North-South vulnerable. Sitting West, you hold:
♠A J 10 8 5 ♥Q 9 7 5 ♦Q 5 3 ♣3,
and you hear this sequence:
West

North

1♠
?

Pass

East
1♣
2♣

South
1♥
3♥

Note that 1♠ promises five or more
spades.
You have a fair hand and are faced
with some noise from South. Should
you go quietly or should you act?
Facing a partner who could open,
it's right to double. It is said that if the
opponents never make a doubled contract, you don't double enough, but this
hand has so many plusses that doubling is surely acceptable. You have an
ace. You have four trumps to the queen,
and you have the ♥9, too. If your partner has as little as the ♥10, you have
two trump tricks. You have a potential
trick in the ♦Q. And the opponents
are vulnerable. If you can set them one,
your score is 200 instead of 100, and
that rates to be a big deal.
Partner passes, and you lead the ♣3.
This what you see:
♠KQ73
♥8
♦J742
♣J762
♠ A J 10 8 5
♥Q975
♦Q53
♣3

52 Bridge Bulletin July 2018

Partner takes the ♣A, declarer dropping the king. This is a fine start. East
then returns the ♦9. Declarer mulls
for a moment and wins with the king.
What do you make of this?
East's diamond return tells you
something important: It tells you that
your partner doesn't have a singleton
spade. Surely he would have returned
that instead of a diamond.
After South takes the ♦K, he leads
the ♥A K, your partner having a
singleton 2. This marks declarer with
the ♥A K J 10 6 4 3. What do you think
partner has over there?
You know he has seven clubs to the
A-Q because the only missing points
are the ♣Q and the ♦A. Partner needs
all of these to have an opening bid. And
it isn't much of an opening bid at that.
On the next trick declarer leads the
♠4. How do you defend?
You are sure your partner doesn't
have a singleton spade. But declarer
might. Take the ♠A. Your partner
plays the 9. You know he doesn't have
one spade, so when he plays the 9,
a high one, it is the start of an echo,
showing a doubleton.
Now you know everything. Your
partner has two spades, one heart, and
you know declarer has one club and
three diamonds. So you can play the
♦Q, knowing it will win. Next, play a
diamond to partner's ace, which wins,
as you knew it would.
Partner now leads the ♣Q, declarer
ruffing with the jack. And you?
Let the jack win. This leaves you

with the ♥Q 9 over declarer, and
these are both winners now. Partner's
club lead put declarer in a bad spot. If
declarer ruffed low, you would overruff
with the 9. If he ruffed with the jack or
10, you would simply discard and that
would give you a second trump winner.
This play is known as a trump promotion, a defensive ploy that can create
tricks out of nowhere.
The final score is down two for 500
and an excellent result.
♠KQ73
♥8
♦J742
♣J762
♠ A J 10 8 5
♠92
♥Q975
♥2
♦Q53
♦ A 10 9
♣3
♣ A Q 10 9 8 5 4
♠64
♥ A K J 10 6 4 3
♦K86
♣K
Postmortem
Some notes on the bidding. First,
East opened his 10-point hand. He
has two aces and a terrific suit. Passing is conservative. Note that East
didn't open 3♣. Second, East sat for
West's double. Those two aces are good
defensive values. Finally, South was
too optimistic with his 3♥ bid. The
singleton ♣K is a warning sign. More
values in diamonds would be preferred.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2018
