September 2021 - 57

Intermediate Players
Better Bridge with Bergen
Improve your bidding judgment - part 4
T
his month, only one hand to
bid.
You are in second seat after
your RHO passed. Both sides are
vulnerable.
A K J 9 6 5 2 kQ 7 3 lA 'A 7
You obviously hold an excellent
hand. What would you do?
I have long maintained that with a
very strong, unbalanced hand with a
long major suit, players do not open
2' often enough. The example above
needs very little help from partner to
make a game, and if 1 is passed out,
you will not be happy. In addition,
suppose that you open 1 and partner
makes the most likely response of
1NT. I assume that you will now rebid
4.
However, would you agree that
there is a definite chance that this
auction will result in your missing a
laydown slam? The following modest
responding hand might result in your
making seven!
5 4 kA K J 2 l8 6 5 3 '9 7 4.
With this example, I believe that
it is very clear to open 2'. Let's see
what will happen next. The opponents
are passing throughout, which
is always nice. By the way, I hope you
try to interfere when your opponents
open 2'. Too many players do not.
Your partner responds 2l.
You are playing " standard " methods
where 2l is just a waiting bid, saying
nothing about his hand (I much
prefer 2l = game forcing and 2k = a
bust). You rebid 2, which is forcing
for one round.
If responder now raises spades, did
you know the following?
If he has some values, he should
simply raise to 3 (forcing) to give
the 2' opener a chance to explore for
slam at a convenient level.
Therefore, a jump to 4 is reserved
for a specific weak hand.
It shows a very weak hand with
four-card support. It is similar in
concept to responder's jump raise to
game after his partner's opening bid
in a major.
And on this hand, partner will jump
to 4, which ends the auction.
North
 Q 10 4 3
k J 6 5
l 7 6 5 3
' 5 2
South (You)
 A K J 9 6 5 2
k Q 7 3
l A
' A 7
The opening lead is the 'Q. How
will you play? Before reading on,
please make your plan.
Unfortunately, partner has the
wrong doubleton. You are looking at
one club loser and potentially three
heart losers. If your side leads hearts,
because your side lacks the precious
k10, unless an opponent has both top
heart honors, you rate to lose three
heart tricks. And after the nonheart
lead, you already know that the opening
leader does not hold the kA K.
However, if you play correctly, even if
E-W are world-class defenders, 4
is cold!
You must appreciate that you need
to force the opponents to break
hearts. Once they do, you will play
second-hand low and never lose a
BY MARTY BERGEN
martybergen.com
third heart trick. So you need to set up
an endplay. In order to achieve that,
you must get rid of all of dummy's diamonds.
To accomplish that, you need
three entries to dummy, They actually
are there. Do you see them?
At trick one, you win the 'A. Before
touching trump, you must cash your
lA. Now you'll cross to dummy with
a trump. But you must not part with
your precious 2. So, lead the 5
and win dummy's 10. On this trick,
East discards a club.
Now, lead a diamond and ruff with a
high trump. Then lead a spade (again,
not the 2) to dummy's Q and ruff
another diamond high. Since you still
hold the precious 2, you can then
lead that to dummy and ruff dummy's
last diamond.
After three rounds of trump and
three diamond ruffs, you still have a
trump in each hand. That is crucial
for your endplay. In order to profit
from a potential ruff-and-sluff, you
must have trump in both hands.
You now exit with your inevitable
club loser. Regardless of which defender
wins the club or what he leads,
you are now assured of not losing
three heart tricks. Well done. Here is
the full deal:
 Q 10 4 3
k J 6 5
l 7 6 5 3
' 5 2
 8 7
k A 10 9
l K J 10 2
' Q J 10 4
 -
k K 8 4 2
l Q 9 8 4
' K 9 8 6 3
 A K J 9 6 5 2
k Q 7 3
l A
' A 7
September 2021 | Bridge Bulletin |
57
http://www.martybergen.com
September 2021

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