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Seeing through cards #6

Knowing how to ask yourselves the right questions and then answer them is the key to improve your chances on any bridge hand, be it as declarer or as defender.

I’ll give you a hand below, and a series of questions – like a riddle! Try to answer these questions by yourself. Then look at the answers, which will be presented together with the full deal.

At the end we’ll summarize a few important “Things to remember” for each problem. Enjoy!

Dealer South, N-S Vulnerable

You agreed to play standard carding with partner (for attitude: high card encourages and low card discourages; for count: high – low shows even number of cards, low – high shows odd).

  1. What does the 2NT rebid mean?
  2. What do you lead?
  3. You lead the ♣A and partner plays the ♣10. What does it mean?
  4. What is declarer’s distribution?
  5. Which suit should you play next?

  1. What does the 2NT rebid mean?
    12-14 balanced with 5 carder Hearts and stopper(s) in Diamond.

  2. What do you lead?
    ♣A. Partner’s bid suggests there is a good chance he has quick entries to his hand. If that is so, you could get to ruff Club(s).

  3. You lead the ♣A and partner plays the ♣10. What does it mean?
    Suit preference for the higher ranking suit. Partner wants Spade! While it is true that you agreed that high card on an Ace lead should be encouraging… look at the dummy! What can partner possibly have to encourage Club?

  4. What is declarer’s distribution?
    Likely 3-5-2-3 (doubleton Diamond). With 6 cards in Hearts, South would have chosen a Heart rebid, and with 4 cards in Clubs he would have supported with 3♣. He could have 4 cards in Spades. Partner bid 2♦ so declarer can’t have more than 2 Diamonds.

  5. Which suit should you play next?
    Continue with the ♠9. If you play Diamond, based on partner’s 2♦ bid, declarer will win, draw trumps, and make 11 tricks: 5 Hearts, 4 Clubs and 2 Diamonds. Defense will get just the first and the last trick (declarer discards 2 Spades on the Clubs). But if you play Spade… The play will proceed like this: Spade to the ♠K, Club ruff, Spade to the ♠A, Club ruff and… a third Spade that partner ruffs, for down 3!!!

Things to remember


a. You can count declarer’s points and distribution: his 2NT rebid shows 12-14 points and balanced (or semi balanced) hand, with Diamond stopper(s). When responder changes suit at the 2nd level, showing 10+ points, then 2NT by opener shows 12-14 and 3NT shows 18-19. Note! If play 2/1 you can agree to play the same, OR agree to use 2NT rebid as 18-19, OR as either 12-14 or 18-19 (needs agreement between partners) since the sequence is game forcing.

b. When you lead an ACE, but the suit is “DEAD”, meaning, it is clear the defense has no more tricks in that suit (for example you can see that dummy hase KQ or more, like here, OR dummy has a singleton so that declarer can ruff next trick) – we don’t signal attitude, but we signal suit preference instead: a HIGH card (on partner’s ACE) now shows we want the higher ranking suit, and LOW means we want the lower suit. So here, the ♣10 showed preference for Spade. A low Club would have shown preference for Diamond (as Club is on the table and Heart is trump).

c. Even though usually an overcall is a clear request for lead, things can change… Partner’s overcall suggested a Diamond lead, mainly against NT (but not only). However, partner didn’t know you hold a singleton Club, nor did he know the contract will finally be 4♥. And now, after you lead, you must follow partner’s direct SIGNAL rather than his BID, and play a Spade at trick 2.

d. When you LEAD a LOW card (attitude), you show value in this suit and ask partner to continue. When you lead a high card – You suggest a switch. That is why you played the ♠9 – You want to make it clear that you don’t want a Spade return (although it should be clear enough from your lead that you lead a stiff Ace).

e. Note that partner wins the Spade with the ♠K, indicating he also has the ♠A (else declarer would surely have won the ♠A). Third hand plays the lower card from a touching sequence. This also means that if partner plays the ♠A at trick 2, he DENIES holding the ♠K.

f. Partner can signal suit preference again, when he is playing Clubs for you to ruff: High and later low to show Spade continuation all the way.

Comments

3 responses to “Seeing through cards #6”

  1. MatCauthon

    The bidding diagram shows partner bidding 2S instead of 2D, so it’s pretty hard to figure this one out right now 🙂

    1. Diana

      @Mat ooops, sorry! Fixed now 🙂

  2. ParvezMHT

    Just I would have done. Good article for Intermediate players