September 2021 - 60

Advanced Players
Mike's Advice
A personal headache
O
n the following auction, North
deals and neither side is
vulnerable.
West North
East
South
1' 3k ?
This is my hand in the South seat.
It occurred in a practice match. After
this hand, one might suggest that I
need more practice:
Q 8 5 kJ 10 4 lA Q 10 9 6 'A 7.
What is the correct action over 3k?
The choices include:
Pass: Obscene. You have an opening
bid. If you pass, nothing can happen
that will let you show this hand later
in the bidding.
Double: A negative double is legal
and may be best. However, your
partner will tend to play you for four
spades.
3NT: This can work if partner has
a heart honor, but it's terrible if he
doesn't. Also, it may get you to 3NT
from the wrong side of the table.
Of these calls, double and 3NT
seem to be the best. Both are flawed
and may not work. But both give you
chances to survive. This is not a fun
hand.
If you bid 3NT - my choice at the
table - you play it there.
Here is the full layout:
 A K J 2
k -
l K J 7
' Q 9 8 5 4 2
 10 9 7 6
k Q 6 2
l 8 5 2
' K J 6
 4 3
k A K 9 8 7 5 3
l 4 3
' 10 3
 Q 8 5
k J 10 4
l A Q 10 9 6
' A 7
How did this work out?
South was in contention for just
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60 | Bridge Bulletin | September 2021
4l: This shows your hand, but it
gets you beyond your likely home of
3NT. It's really hard to imagine this is
the right bid.
BY MIKE LAWRENCE
michaelslawrence.com
a moment. West led the k2, won
by East's king. East considered his
play and finally led a low heart to the
queen. West played a heart back. If
East had played the king and ace on
the first two tricks, 3NT would have
made 10 tricks.
Some might think that North
should bid over 3NT. That's a maybe.
South said he had hearts stopped,
and he might have had terrific
hearts. North is relatively blameless.
How would a negative double have
worked? On this hand, North might
have bid 4. He has a terrific hand
for spades. If South passes, 4 can be
made by discarding clubs on the first
three rounds of hearts. Making 4
would be a nice result, but making
6l would be better yet.
I asked a friend who knows more
about bidding than I can imagine
what he would do. He suggested that
double was probably best, but that he
had some sympathy for 3NT. Thanks.
I won't give you his name because
that would get him too many emails
and he would never answer another
question for me ... ever.
The only bid that would get you to
6l is for South to bid 4l over 3k,
but I refuse to accept that bid. My
friend agreed that 4l is a bid that
could work, but more often would not.
Postmortem: If East had bid 1k
or 2k, South would bid his diamond
suit, and a diamond contract would
have been reached. I suspect 6l
would have been the result. The key
to reaching 6l is that South is able to
bid diamonds at the two or three level.
This is just one more example of
why preempts are effective.
http://www.michaelslawrence.com
September 2021

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