September 2022 - 56

Intermediate Players
Mike's Bridge Lesson
A complete balancing auction
H
 5 2
k A J 5
l J 9 6 4
' J 10 7 5
 9 8 7 6 3
k 7 6 4
l Q
' A Q 6 2
West North East
2k Pass
Pass Pass
Pass
South
1k Pass
2
3k Pass
Pass 3 All Pass
East has a decent 1k opening bid.
South should pass. I know players
who can't resist bidding 1 but the
suit is horrible, the hand is minimum,
and the lQ may be useless. Just no
reason to bid here.
West has an average-plus raise. The
hearts are good and he has a useful
J-10 on the side, plus a doubleton
spade.
North has 11 HCP, but the hand is
worth less than that. The kQ isn't
worth anything and his main suit, diamonds,
isn't worth bidding at the three
level. Double is legal but unacceptable.
Double doesn't promise the world, but
it does promise better shape.
East passes. He hopes to play in 2k.
Traditionally, one of the most comfortable
contracts for you is two of a major
56 | Bridge Bulletin | September 2022
ere's a deal I kibitzed online
that features a balancing
action followed by further
bidding. Which of the calls do you
agree with?
Dlr: East  K Q J
Vul: E-W k Q 3
l K 10 8 7 5
' 9 8 3
 A 10 4
k K 10 9 8 2
l A 3 2
' K 4
when you open and partner raises.
Assuming you play it decently, playing
in two of a major here scores well.
South bids 2. When your opponents
bid to two of a major on this
sequence, you can be sure that you
won't do well. Balancing on this
auction is close to automatic. At the
least, you should think about it. South
has five spades. He has three hearts,
which tells him that North has two
at most. The opponents have stopped
bidding, and that says that they tend
to have a maximum of 22 HCP, and
they can have less. Your side averages
around 20 points. If you bid 2 and
get just modestly lucky, you will be
able to make 2 or push the opponents
higher.
West passes. Bidding again would
be poor. East knows what West has.
West doesn't know what East has.
North should pass. He knows that
South couldn't bid 1 earlier. That
limits South's values. North should
also be aware that South might have
bid with a four-card spade suit. It
happens. You never overcall at the
two level with a four-card suit, but
you can balance with a four-card suit.
North's pass here should be routine.
Not only is the North hand not worth
a bid, it isn't worth thinking about.
This gets the bidding back to East,
who opened 1k. Should he bid 3k?
This is a recurring problem. East has
a balanced hand, and that is always
a minus. East does have good points
and he has a pretty good heart suit.
But - and this is a big but - West
usually has three trumps. If you have
ways for West to show a four-card
raise, then you know he has only
three. I would say that the quality of
the East hand puts it in contention to
BY MIKE LAWRENCE
michaelslawrence.com
bid 3k, but it isn't automatic. In practice,
East did bid 3k. If East knew for
sure that 2 would make, his 3k bid
had something extra going for it.
South passes, very happy to have
pushed the opponents to 3k. Setting
3k is much easier than setting 2k.
Getting opener to 3k is one of the
good results that can come from
bidding 2.
West passes too. Clear. If East had
a good hand, he would have bid more
earlier.
North now has a chance to make
a very good call: Pass. North should
know that even with his good spades
and modest values, South won't have
an easy time of it in 3. North should
be pleased that he is defending 3k
and not 2k.
Postmortem: In the bidding, I mentioned
that if East knew 2 would
make, bidding 3k would have some
merit. But how can East be sure?
Now, how many tricks can each
side take? South probably will take
seven tricks in 2. There are handling
problems. Down one rates to
be par. 3 would be down two and it
might be doubled. Nothing good will
come of being in 3.
In hearts, East will have to take
some views in the play. It's reasonable
that East will ruff a spade in dummy
and then take five hearts with a
winning guess. No matter what East
does, 3k will fail.
The upshot is that South's 2 bid
does something very good for North-
South. It forces East-West to make
a difficult competitive decision. The
biggest ideas you can take from this
deal are that South should balance,
and North should stay quiet.
One last comment. Change the 
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September 2022

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