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It's Fri Day. 

No “Wrong” Choice.

You only have a choice of 2 cards to play in the suit your partner led at trick 1. While only one of them is the right card to play, neither of them is actually wrong, at least in theory! It sounds like we should find successful defence!

 

South’s 2NT opening was a little stronger than you might expect, as it showed 22-23 points and a balanced hand. That might explain North’s somewhat ambitious bidding. 3 was Stayman and 3 denied a 4-card major.

Your partner, West, leads K. With which of your two spades do you follow with at trick 1?

There are legal ways of communicating with your partner while defending a contract. One of these is to say whether you like the suit partner has led, assuming you do not have to play a high card to try and win the trick. When your partner leads a king, you can thus indicate.

There are at least 2 methods of doing so. One is to play the highest card you can afford saying you like the suit, normally a 7, 8 or 9 of the suit. “Please continue the suit if you retain the lead or next gain the lead.” The other method is “low like”, saying the same thing but with the lowest card you have in the suit. Naturally, if you do not like the lead, do the opposite. The first method is loosely called using “natural” signals, “high- like, low- do not like”.

The second method is called “reverse encouragement”, “high – do not like, low- like.” It really helps your defence

·       to play one of these methods

·       to play the same method as your partner

·       for the player on lead to watch which card their partner plays

The reason neither of the cards East could play was wrong was because it depended on the method used. Alas, something went wrong with the defence as these were the 4 hands:

 

 

South was in big trouble. Almost certainly, they had 5 club tricks, AK and A. That was 8 tricks. For a ninth, they needed to score either J or Q. So, at trick 1, after East played 6, South played low, hoping for some help from West. Any card from West except for a spade continuation would have defeated the contract, a heart switch defeating it quickly assuming the defence took 4 tricks in that suit. However, you can guess which suit West played at trick 2. Contract made.

It would seem West was playing low encourage (from dummy’s spade holding, West could tell East had played their lowest spade) while East was not! It really helps to play one of these methods and play the same one as your partner!

 

An illegal way of telling your partner to try
a different suit, unless you look like the above all the time!

North’s optimism should not have been rewarded. As we know, contracts can sometimes be made by a lucky lie of the cards and at other times by misdefence. Everyone misdefends at times but by playing even the simplest of signalling methods, you can cut down on the guesswork. Oh, and do watch your partner’s card!

There are other ways of defending, including giving count. Playing a different method above might also have aided the defence. The above 2 methods are the simplest. If you and your partner are not using any method, try one, the same one. 

Richard Solomon

p.s. more next week on Tuesday after the International Team Trials.

  

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