Signal #365

[ralph23]

♣♦♥♠

 

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sq842ha43dk643cqt&e=sa5hj82dt875c5432]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

South opens 1♠, which North raises to 3♠. South then bids 4♠ to end the auction.

 

You play standard defensive signals; attitude is your primary signal when partner leads. Hi = encouragement, lo = discouragement.

 

Partner leads the King of ♥, and dummy plays low.

 

a. Which card do you play on trick one?

b. Why?

 

Adv & Exp pls hide your answers.

[ArtK78]

Partner led from the KQ(xxx) of hearts and you have the J. Furthermore, you don't want partner to play any other suit. So play the ♥8, encouraging.

[ralph23]

You like ♥s, partner has ♥s, all God's children got ♥s...

 

Hands to follow.

 

Art, why doesn't a high heart from 3rd hand ask for a switch to ♦?

 

After all the ♥ Ace is in dummy..... so isn't a high one Laven ...er, uh, a suit preference signal, I mean ? :)

[Quantumcat]

♠KJTxxx

♥xx

♦AJx

♣Ax

 

Maybe declarer has this hand. He might lose a diamond if he guesses wrong, the ace of trumps, a heart, and a club.

 

If possible he'd like to have the guess in diamonds made for him. So what he plans to do is win the second round of hearts, ruff a heart, draw trumps, play off the ace and another club. Now if partner leads a club or heart he ruffs in dummy and discards a diamond. If he leads diamonds, the guess is taken for him and declarer loses just the club, the heart and the ace of trumps.

 

Playing the low heart is vital: if declarer wins it, he plays a heart to get the ruff later, but partner or I play a club to knock out the ace, then we cash a club when I get in with my ace of trumps. He's lost three tricks already and has to take the diamond guess himself. He has to take it against me since I have the ♦T (yay!) and we win.

 

So anyway, what can we do against declarer's plans? If partner plays a club now it'll be just like if declarer had done the wrong thing and won the first heart ... but wait, it won't. He'll be leading away from his ♣K(J) and declarer will not lose a club! But it's too late to do it when I get in with my ♠A, even if partner puts me in with it now. Well, if I had the ♣K, I would discourage partner and tell him to lead a club (somehow) then declarer's plan would not work.

 

Actually, if I had the ♣K, then he couldn't put partner in, and I would be able to lead a diamond through, promoting my ten.

 

Ok I'm totally confused, I don't think my hand works. If you take away dummy's ♣Q it does.

[ralph23]

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sq842ha43dk643cqt&w=s63hkqt9d92ca9876&e=sa5hj82dt875c5432&s=skjt97h765daqjckj]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

At trick one, as Art stated, our attitude to hearts is positive because we have the Jack; we know partner is leading from KQ(x..). We simply want to encourage another heart so we can collect all our hearts after the Ace is gone. So play high on trick one. There is no other suit that is attractive to East, so signal that hearts are good !

 

The defense is easy so long as partner continues hearts. Declarer will win trick two with the Ace of hearts, and pull trumps (nothing else is better). East wins the Ace and the defense cashes its good heart. Declarer still has the club Ace to lose, and must go down.

 

Notice what a disaster it is if East mis-signals and West, thinking South has the Jack of hearts and now being afraid to lead into declarer's (falsely presumed) Ace-Jack, leads another suit at trick two (say a diamond). South wins and knocks out the trump Ace. West can lead hearts now, but it's too late; dummy wins the Ace, declarer pulls trumps, and plays on diamonds.

 

South can eventually discard his losing heart on the King of diamonds, and makes his contract.

 

Moral of the Story: When you know partner is leading from KQ, your Jack is an equal honor. So it may be (usually is) a good idea to encourage partner to keep up that suit.

[ralph23]

Well, if I had the ♣K, I would discourage partner and tell him to lead a club (somehow) ...

Remember, you can't do that when playing attitude signals. All you can do is signal "I don't like hearts" at trick one. You can't also tell him what to lead. He will have to figure that out himself.

 

Players sometimes run together the suit preference signal and the attitude signal. They are not the same. If you play the deuce on hearts at trick one, it is discouraging hearts; but it doesn't say which suit you prefer. It doesn't say e.g. lead a club.

 

In the example hand you gave, declarer only has one heart loser and he lost it at trick one; so the defense isn't getting any more hearts. You don't know that when you signal for another heart of course.