Dubious Logic

Signals

It almost taken for granted that defenders must signal to each other. I say almost just to acknowledge that there is, or perhaps was, a school of thought that maintained that it was better not to tell declarer anything and infer the defence from the play. However, in the modern tournament game right down to the club duplicate it is now accepted that those disadvantages are outweighed by the two defenders having as much of that precious information as possible.

But there is another side to this equation; nothing seems quite so ruinous as signals improperly handled for partnership morale and the fall-out is often during a club pairs. The problem is often simple lack of vigilance – too busy defending from one hand, the receiver simply fails to notice the cards played opposite – together with lack of confidence in the method employed. Naturally, when trying to convey meaning with a spot card, if you want to play high but can only choose between 4, 3 and 2 you have to try the four and trust partner is up with the spots. However, one often sees a meanness creep in; with 9, 6, 2 and trying to play high, the cruel partner will only contribute the six and wonder why the message was missed.

The experienced player falls into different traps; rigorous with emphatic signals, parting with a card that would have taken a trick is more than a touch embarrassing and giving a message about one suit rather than the whole hand are two examples. Avoiding that latter fault can require not inconsiderable thought (and it's perhaps why many players restrict themselves to simple count signals) and even with time to ponder, there's not always an answer, take the South cards here:

Partner leads the ♦7 to your ten and declarer's ace. He now leads a spade towards dummy's knave but partner steps in with the king; what do you discard?

You will have to construct the full hand; for starters, partner's lead figures to be a singleton. In trumps, as West made no attempt to reach dummy for a finesse, it is very likely partner has both ace and king. If you can gain the lead, the diamond ruff will set the contract. If declarer has two hearts (say ♠Q1098764 ♥102 ♦AK9 ♣A) then partner should play one now and another when in with the spade ace. If declarer has two clubs (perhaps ♠Q1098764 ♥10 ♦AK9 ♣A7) then a low club each time does the trick.

In short this is not something you can know and even if you were able to show your partner your honours, he may yet do the wrong thing – it's the shape that he needs to see. As high or low spot cards will tend to sway him to one course or another – heart or club – you should perhaps suggest at least that either course might work. The best way to do that is to throw the ♣Q. More normally this shows a sequence, QJ109, where one can afford the honour, but here, with the lead from partner and the ten in dummy, your cards are good enough. That way, at least North will have all the information at his disposal, and (perish the unworthy thought) if he goes wrong, he can't blame you.

Published Saturday 15.Apr.2006