May 2021 - 56

Intermediate Players

Mike's Bridge Lesson
A balancing auction
	 West  K 9 7 6 4
Dlr:
	 N-S
65
Vul:
	
Q9732
	
2
 5		
J83
N
 K 3		 W E  Q 8 7 2
 A J 8 6 4	
 10
S
 A K J 6 3	
 10 9 8 7 4
	
 A Q 10 2
	
 A J 10 9 4
	
K5
	
Q5
West	 North	East	 South
1	 Pass	 Pass	Dbl
2	2	4	4
5	
Dbl	
All Pass
Some hands seem cut and dried.
This one isn't spectacular, but it does
include some interesting issues. I'm
showing all four hands because everyone has something to do.
West opens 1, which is passed to
South. How should South bid in the
balancing seat?
South wants to get both majors into
the picture, so he makes a takeout double. He has a good enough hand to cater
to most possible sequences. South is
likely to have more decisions later.
West bids 2. Some would bid 3.
It's not that this hand is worth a 3 bid,
but the 5-5 shape is good enough that
West might wish to make life a little
more difficult for North-South. If West
thinks he might compete to 3 later,
it's a good idea to do it all at once. East,
remember, couldn't respond to 1, so
East doesn't rate to have a lot to say.
North bids 2. He doesn't have much
but he does have five good spades and
he does have shape. This hand is plenty
good to bid 2 after South's double.
East, the hand that couldn't respond
to 1, now finds that he has super

56 | Bridge Bulletin | May 2021

BY MIKE LAWRENCE

michaelslawrence.com

support for opener's second suit. His
jump to 4 describes a hand something like this one. Some would only
raise to 3 and some would pass.
Passing isn't acceptable. If you raise
clubs and partner chooses to bid again,
your hand won't be a disappointment.
South has a good spade fit with more
than normal takeout double values.
Should he raise? Maybe. He should be
nervous about his club and diamond
honors. His spades are excellent. His
heart holding is very useful. 4 could
be cold. And if he bids 4, there is a
good chance that one of the opponents
will bid 5. That's a frequent result of
an auction like this one. I would bid 4,
rooting for it to make, but being satisfied if it goes down one and they can
make a partscore. But I expect that will
be moot because the opponents will
frequently bid 5, which I can double.
Then, of course, we have to set it.
There is a chance that they can make
5 given they have a huge fit and given
that South has the (possibly) poorly
placed K.
West bids 5. His hand is good
enough that he can hope to make it.
East usually has five clubs and a sane
reason to bid 4. That reason might
be a singleton diamond, or it might be
a diamond honor. Further, West isn't
worried about his K. On the bidding,
South should have the A.
At the end, North doubles on the basis
of his good diamond holding. He's not
sure 5 will go down, but if it makes, it
will usually be the case that not many
pairs bid it. And if 5 doubled goes
down two, the 300-point penalty will be
better than any other result except for
those who bid and make 4.
It turns out that North's diamond
holding will be worth one trick on defense. But if North had the Q 7 5 4 3

and West the A J 8 6 2, 5 doubled
could be made: After cashing the A
and ruffing a diamond, West's remaining diamonds are good enough to set up
another trick by leading them through
North. Or if diamonds divided 4-3, 5
doubled could be made. Some guessing
would be required.

Postmortem

Spectacular hands make news. But
even ordinary hands contain some
basis for discussion. This one offers
problems for everyone. Would you
have found all the bids by each of the
four players?
Of note is that 4 will go down if the
defenders do the right things. They can
take a diamond, a diamond ruff, a club
and a heart. But the defenders may
miss the diamond ruff. If East leads a
diamond to West's ace, he might err by
leading the A K.

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May 2021

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