May 2019 - 60

Advanced Players

Mike's Advice
BY MIKE LAWRENCE

michaelslawrence.com

Cover an honor?
Dlr: South ♠ A 4 2
Vul: E-W ♥ A Q 2
♦Q9653
♣J4
♠J
♥K743
♦J
♣ A K Q 10 8 7 6
West

North

East

2♣
3♥

3♣
5♦

Pass
All Pass

South
1♦
3♦

Sitting West, you have a number
of problems during the auction. The
first problem is how many clubs to
bid over 1♦. With seven likely tricks
and with super shape, 2♣ rates to be
best. You might have 3NT on your way.
You might have 4♥, too. East's hand is
an unknown quantity right now. You
would like, if possible, to explore.
When North bids 3♣, a cuebid, he
promises a limit raise in diamonds or
a game-forcing raise in diamonds. He
will show which on the next round.
Your partner passes and opener bids
3♦, showing a minimum and expressing a willingness to play there.
Should you give up? Not an easy
question. The simple way to look at
this is to ask yourself what you need to
make a game your way. If your partner
has five hearts to the Q-J, you might
make 4♥. That's a possible hand for
partner in spite of their strong bidding.
So you bid 3♥, but North jumped to
5♦, ending the bidding.
You lead the ♣A (ace from A-K), and

60 Bridge Bulletin May 2019

partner plays the 3, declarer the 9. If
you check the spot cards in clubs, you
will note you are missing the 5 and 2.
If partner has the 2, he is telling you
he has a doubleton. If partner doesn't
have the 2, declarer has it. In either
case, continuing with the ♣K is best. It
wins, East finishing his high-low, and
declarer playing the missing 5.
At trick three you lead the ♠J. Dummy plays low; your partner plays the
queen, and declarer the king. Why did
your partner play the queen? He must
have the queen and 10 and is telling you
that he has a potential spade winner.
Declarer leads to the ♦Q in dummy
and returns to his ♦A. When he plays
the ♦K, your partner follows again,
showing, in order, the 4, 7 and 10. East
wouldn't play the 10 if he had four of
them, so declarer is known to have two
clubs and four diamonds.
After cashing the third diamond,
South leads the ♥J. You are faced with
the common question of whether you
should cover an honor.
Do you cover? You need to determine
what you know for sure:
1. Declarer has four diamonds and
two clubs.
2. Declarer can't have a five-card
major. He opened 1♦ and has four
of those. He has seven cards in
the majors. He is 4=3 or 3=4 in the
majors.
3. Your partner has spades stopped.
Why play the queen if he didn't
have the 10 as well?
4. If South has four spades and three
hearts, he has a spade loser no mat-

ter what you do when he leads the
♥J.
5. If he has three spades, he will
need a way to get rid of his spade
loser. The only way he can do that
is by taking four heart tricks. The
only way that can happen is if you
cover the ♥J. If declarer's hearts
are good enough, he will get rid of
dummy's spade.
Here is the complete deal:
♠A42
♥AQ2
♦Q9653
♣J4
♠J
♠ Q 10 9 7 6 3
♥K743
♥96
♦J
♦ 10 7 4
♣ A K Q 10 8 7 6
♣32
♠K85
♥ J 10 8 5
♦AK82
♣95
If you cover, South's hearts will
become winners, and your spade winner will go away on the fourth heart.
If you don't cover, no matter what the
distribution, South will lose a spade at
the end.
Postmortem
East's play of the ♠Q was excellent.
It told West in clear terms that East
had the ♠Q 10 and could stop the suit
from running.
If West had the ♥9, he could cover
the heart because his hearts would be
good enough that South couldn't run
the heart suit.
◾
http://www.michaelslawrence.com
May 2019

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