March 2025 - 62

Advanced Players
Mike's Advice
What do you bid?
North-South vulnerable, South
deals:
West North East
1h ?
Sitting North, you have this awkward
problem. What is your call holding:
sA Q h10 8 4 2 dQ 10 7 6 cK 10 4?
What should you bid? If you see
an obvious choice, I think we must
be looking through different glasses.
Nothing feels perfect.
Here are some options. I suspect
these two would get a lot of votes:
1NT: This is wrong because you
have too strong a hand, plus you don't
have a sure heart stopper.
2NT: An invitational 2NT is right
on values, but you still don't have a
heart stopper.
If you choose either of these bids,
you will declare any notrump contract.
It's possible that your partner
has a helpful heart holding, but
the addictive bidding
app
South
1c
whatever he has, it is likely the hand
would be better played from his side
of the table. Grabbing the notrump
isn't wise with this heart holding.
Here are some other calls to think
about, also flawed:
Double: In standard bidding, this
would be a negative double promising
at least 6 points and four (or sometimes
three) spades. You have plenty
of points for this action, but you have
a doubleton spade.
2c: Raising partner's minor isn't a
terrible idea. The trouble with doing
that here is that you have only three
clubs, and you have more values
than he will expect.
3c: This jump is missing adequate
trump support.
2h: The ever-popular cuebid might
work, but your partner will expect
an entirely different hand. If you
play that a cuebid is a limit raise or
better, he will expect very good club
support. You don't have it. If you bid
2h, you will gain if your partner bids
notrump. He won't do that without
a heart stopper, so you will be in a
manageable contract. For the record,
if you did choose to cuebid 2h, going
on to 3NT would be reasonable.
2d: This is an odd-looking bid. It
has some nice features, however. 2d
isn't game forcing because you bid it
over an overcall.
When I held this hand, I tried
2d and wondered what kind of circus
I was getting into. Here's what
happened:
West North East
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62 | Bridge Bulletin | March 2025
1h 2d
?
Pass
Pass
South
1c
2s
BY MIKE LAWRENCE
michaelslawrence.com
The auction still isn't perfect for
you, but you have a bid that shows
your general values, which is nice.
3c shows invitational values, and
because you didn't raise earlier, it
shows something like this hand.
Your partner bids 5c and you pass.
Are you happy with this?
When your partner bids 5c, you
should be pleased. You have fitting
spade honors, you have decent clubs,
and you have nothing in hearts. Your
dQ may or may not be useful, but
overall, your hand is what your partner
should expect.
Here's the layout as your partner
sees it:
s A Q
h 10 8 4 2
d Q 10 7 6
c K 10 4
s K 8 6 4
h 3
d A 5
c A Q J 9 3 2
This is an excellent contract. 3NT
doesn't rate to make; the defenders
may take five or six heart winners.
Now you get to see if your partner
can make 5c to justify this auction.
Postmortem: Hands like this are
hard to bid. If South had even a singleton
hJ, you would have a heart
stopper for notrump.
West leads the d9. The play isn't as
easy as it looks. There are excellent
lines but there are also a couple of
traps. I'll discuss the play in the next
article. Hint: East has the dK J x x,
so if you play an honor from dummy,
East will cover it. Now you have
something to think about for the next
30 days. 2
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March 2025

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