Monday, April 25, 2005 11:10 AM

Hand Evaluation - Signals & Patterns

PITBULLS:

Translating bidding into patterns should be 2^nd nature for good defenders. Their bidding is not the exclusive property of their partnership so you can help yourself to the information for defensive purposes. This is why experts ask a lot of questions on their bidding. They want to get a tentative count of the hand & not just to learn their bidding system J . You plug their bidding into a pattern , so you are off to an excellent start for defensive purposes. You base your opening lead on the pattern which you have developed ( translated ) from the bidding.

The hard auctions are the 1NT – 3NT auctions or the jump to game auctions . The bidding has given you no clue on how to lead or how to form a plan for defense. Here is where signaling comes in as you must rely more on partner due to the lack of clear bidding. Partner has a duty to give count when declarer is playing a suit ( attitude when you are leading a suit ) . You take this signal & plug it into a pattern to guide your defense. You know what suits to keep , how many tricks declarer has , avoiding end plays , squeezes & all sorts of defensive plays based on the “count” of declarers hand. 2^nd discards in the same suit are defined as present count by established partnerships.

Of course the 1^st discard is odd/even or attitude whatever your partnership has agreed. The odd/even scheme is far superior to standard in that declarer can not false card. Your card is obviously either even or odd so declarer cannot practice deception as with standard signaling. Suit preference is built into the odd/even scheme. If the card is even , it is further broken down into a low even or a high even card. This corresponds to the rank of the two other suits. The defender has a choice of a making a negative signal or a positive signal with the first discard. Does it matter which ? This decision is “depending on context” . If you have a violent preference for a suit, play an initial odd discard to inform partner. If more time is required to see what declarer is discarding or no real strong preference , play an even card as your first discard. Do not forget this scheme applies for the first discard only. Other subsequent discards , revert to your normal style ( upside down or otherwise ) . Your next discard in a suit if low ( upside down ) , means secondary interest in that suit.

The 2^Nd discard in the same suit - if it is a high spot says I had an original odd number, a low card an original even number of cards in that suit ( upside down signals ) .

Lets do some examples

Dummy ♠ Axx ♥ Kxx ♦ QJ10 ♣ xxxx

You ♠ K10xx ♥ Qxx ♦ xxx ♣ Jxx

You lead the spade deuce , partner plays the queen , returns a spade with declarer playing the jack & ducking your King. You return a spade , the Ace wins on the board and partner follows & declarer throws a heart. Ok 1^st pattern to plug in is the spade suit. 4-4-3-2 with declarer having 2 spades. Declarer now starts the diamond from the board , partner shows out on the 3^rd diamond discarding the heart 3. You play odd/even on the initial discard so partner likes hearts. The diamond pattern is 5-3-3-2 so declarer has 5 diamonds to run . On the 4^th diamond you let a heart go , partner discards the 9 of hearts. This shows an original odd number of hearts. Was it 3 or 5 ? It cannot be 3 as partner has stiffed down to the Ace of hearts ( unlikely ) so give partner an original 5 hearts. The heart pattern is 5-3-3-2 so declarer has only two hearts !

Declarers pattern is now complete so he opened an off shape 1NT with ♠Jx ♥Jx ♦AKxxx ♣AKxx . On the 5^th diamond you let another heart go , as a club sluff will give him the contract. Partner has only two clubs ( Qx ) so your jack of clubs is the killer card for their contract. You may have kept your jack of clubs anyway , but partners signals demanded that you keep your club. Get into the habit of plugging signals into patterns. You will be rewarded +100 instead of –630 !!

In NT contracts , the above signaling scheme is modified as Smith echos show attitude towards your opening lead. Playing Smith echos in NT , all signals are count as you will show attitude when declarer attacks her first suit. Smith echos are like gold in that you “shake partner “ off your initial lead. I had ♦Q1098x & lead the ♦9 against 3NT . The ♦J won on the board so declarer . wide open in hearts , played a spade initially. My partner won the spade , so I played a Smith echo saying I hated my own lead. Partner dutifully switched to a heart as demanded , so 3NT goes down. Without the Smith echo, he might have continued diamonds , which hands 3NT to the opponents.