Signals and Discards

English Bridge

by David Bakhshi S D

R The count A C S I D

signal S L A N G I S David Bakhshi declarer from winning four tricks in the defending against a 4 ™ contract (the suit. How can East know how many cards opponents bid 1 ™ –2™ –4™), and the remaining players hold in the suit? partner, West, leads the queen of LAST time we began our series on defensive The standard way to signal one’s distri - diamonds (top of a sequence). carding by looking at the Attitude signal. bution is to play a high card to show an Declarer wins the first trick in his own This month we move on to another very even number of cards in the suit led, or a hand with the ace of diamonds, and leads common form of signal – the Count signal. low card to show an odd number of cards the queen of clubs. How should you (HELO). Those that employ ‘reverse’ or defend, as East? It looks as if declarer is Why do we need an alternative ‘upside-down’ signals exchange the same trying to establish at least one discard (to to attitude signals? mean ings in the opposite way: a high card throw a potential diamond loser), before shows an odd number of cards, while a losing the lead in trumps. If he has the We concluded last time with the thought low card would show an even number of singleton queen of clubs, you can win with that if declarer starts the trick, then there is cards. your ace immediately, but if he has ®Q-x, an assumption that our attitude will be Thus in the example above, playing stan - with no other immediate entry to the ‘known’, so it will usually be more useful to dard signals, West’s play of the two indi cates dummy, he will be hoping that you win give a different message to our partner. The of an odd number of cards (one or three), with your ace on the first round (thereby next most important piece of information so East does best to win the second round of allowing him to cross to dummy in clubs). often relates to the number of cards held in the suit (South has two or four cards). It is therefore crucial to know partner’s the suit which has been led – hence we can count in clubs. How can he anticipate this? provide a distributional or count signal. Are count signals only useful When declarer leads a suit, there is a against no-trump contracts? presumption that the defenders’ attitude Count signals will be ‘known’. This will clearly be the Count signals can also be useful when case in an instance such as this one where The classic example of the need to give a defending against trump contracts, as they all of the outstanding club honours can be count signal occurs when defending a no- allow the defenders to communicate seen, and the only information of interest trump contract in which dummy has a about the potential to trump declarer’s will be whether East should win with his long suit which declarer is seeking to winners. The default position for many ace of clubs. Thus, if West follows with the establish, yet there are no outside entries partnerships is to play that attitude signals club two on the first round, East can infer to the dummy. In these cases, it is often have first priority, but once an attitude that South has the club queen doubleton, crucial that the defenders win their trick at signal has been given, or in cases where and does best to win with the club ace on the point where declarer has run out of attitude is ‘known’ (either because an atti - the second round. This would be crucial if cards in dummy’s long suit: tude signal has previously been given, or South held: because declarer is attacking the suit), ´ Q 6 ™ K Q J 7 3 2 t A K 4 ® Q 4 then the defenders revert to count. So, if the opponents are playing in a ´ K Q J 10 5 trump contract and declarer plays on a

N side suit, the defenders can still signal their ´ 2 W E ´ A 9 4 ´ K 8 4 distribution. This is also important in case S ™ 9 8 6 5 a ruff can be taken by the defenders (note: ´ 3 t 9 5 2 it is often the case that it is wiser not to ® K J 5 advertise their length to declarer if trumps ´ A 10 7 2 have already been drawn).

When declarer leads the three to dummy’s N ™ 4 ten, East has to decide when to win with E t 10 8 3 Should one ever his ace. If South has two cards in the suit, ® A 10 8 6 3 signal distribution East does best to win on the second round with an honour card? of the suit. However, if South has three cards, it is important to hold on to the ace What would be the most useful type of Signalling with an honour is unwise when until the third round in order to prevent signal in the layout above? You are giving count, as it is usually better to

16 English Bridge April 2011 www.ebu.co.uk retain such high cards in suits which you are seeking to ‘cash out’ against high declarer is attacking. For example: level contracts. Say the opponents are CAPTION playing at the five or six level after a competitive auction. It is often the case COMPETITION ™ A 10 7 4 that you need to know how many tricks you can cash in one of your ‘long’ suits. N ™ 2 W E ™ J 6 Thus, a useful agreement is that once the S opponents are playing at the five level or ™ K higher, then the lead of an ace still asks for attitude, while the lead of a king asks for count. So, when holding ace-king of a long South, the declarer, leads the king and suit, you can lead the king to discover how West plays the two. In this case, it would be many winners you can cash in the suit. (It both unwise and unnecessary to play the is worth noting that some partnerships jack on the first round. West does not need extend this principle so that they give to know that East has a doubleton, and if count on the lead of the king at any level South holds ™K-8-5-3, playing the jack (see the February 2011 Debate), but I prefer will allow declarer to win four tricks in the to save this agreement for higher levels, as suit by leading to the ten on the second I believe that attitude signals are usually After failing to draw the last trump, Alan round, while playing low ensures that the more helpful at lower levels. decided not to wait for the post mortem. defenders will win a trick with the jack or THE winner of our February com pe ti tion, queen. Do count signals only occur with the cap tion above, is Fraser McLeod on the first round of the suit? of Eastleigh, who will re ceive a charming Should count signals ever take Victoriana bridge mug from our priority over attitude signals? Unlike attitude signals, it can be helpful to sponsors, Bridge and Golf Gifts Direct give distributional signals on the second (see page 11). Other good cap tions Though attitude signals are typically the round of a suit. Consider the following were: Wait, Deep Finesse says you can’t most useful trick-one signals, there are example: make it on a trump lead! (Peter Hawkes, occasions where count signals are partic - Oxon); Stop before you jump! (George ularly helpful. Consider the following Pilcher, Kent); Do you think we should call the director? (Hilary Childs, Essex); Don’t problem: t 10 5 jump, we won’t have a four! (Michael N Harris, East Sussex); Don’t do it Dave, t K J 9 2 W E t A (?) S I’ll stop revers ing on 15 points! (Dave ® Q 6 Workman, Berks); Don’t go for the drop! t 6 4 (?) N (Judith Moore, Notts); But Brian, everyone ® A J 8 4 2 W E ® ? revokes! (Paul Quinn, Norfolk); and Don't S jump, there’s only one board left to play! ® ? You are defending a 3NT contract played (Ron Beazley, Essex). by South, and your opening lead is the two The cartoon for our new competition of diamonds (playing fourth highest). East is below. Please send your bridgy You are West, defending a 3NT contract wins trick one with the ace, and returns captions (multiple entries accep ted) to played by South, and, playing fourth the suit. You win with the jack (declarer the Editor, English Bridge, 23 Erleigh highest, lead the club four at trick one. plays low on the first two rounds) and Road, Reading RG1 5LR or by e-mail to Declarer wins trick one with dummy’s have to decide how to continue. [email protected] not later than 20th April queen, then attacks another suit in which If South started with Q-x-x, playing the 2011. Don’t forget to include your full you gain the lead. How should you king now is best, but if South had Q-x-x-x, postal address! continue? it is necessary to get partner on lead to It is fair to assume that declarer holds play a third round through declarer’s the king. If he started with ®K-x, you remain ing tQ-x. Again, the key is for East can play the ace and cash three more to show distribution on the second round tricks in the suit, but if he started with of the suit. How does he do this? The ®K-x-x, it is necessary to get partner on ‘standard’ way is for him to give ‘standard lead to play through declarer’s remaining remaining count’. Thus he returns top of a ®K-x. Given that partner could not beat remaining doubleton or his original fourth the queen at trick one, his attitude is highest if he began with four or more ‘known’. Hence, it is more useful for him cards. So, in this case, a return of the t8 to give a count signal at trick one. If he (say) would show a remaining double ton, shows an odd number of clubs, you can while a return of the t3 would show that work out that declarer’s king will not fall East has three cards remaining in the suit. under your ace. This principle of giving ‘remainder’ Sponsored by Bridge A second instance in which count count is also useful when discarding (to signals can be especially useful is when which we will return later in this series). r & Golf Gifts Direct