Monday, July 22, 2002 9:28 PM

Subject: Signals

PITBULLS:

The recent regional I got a chance to play with my old partner of years ago Subash Gupta . He is an excellent player as well as a nice guy and I really enjoyed the sessions with him . We had fun and still played good brdige but I do fault him for buying me my 3rd beer in the stretch which I believe resulted in me endplaying myself on the last board of the evening to lose the event by 7 match points .

Anyway , there were a number of tips Subash gave me which some of them I will pass along . One is the art of "signaling" . I call this an art rather than a science because it can be over done and should never take the place of common sense defense . One of the tools we played was "reverse" Smith echoes .   A Smith echo is a high low in the opponents suit to say whether you liked the opening lead or not . This is done with suits where count does not matter or it would not be a good idea to give correct count to the declarer anyway . It can also be done by the opening leader himself to prevent or encourage a switch !

    Subash and I were defending 2NT  where the auction went 1♦             1♠

2♦              2NT

                        Dummy held       x   A    K      A

x   x    J       x

x   x     9     My hand    x x   A   K

8                              x   x  Q J       7 x x  10 x                                                                               x

    Subash lead the 10 of hearts against the 2NT contract and declarer played low and won the jack . Declarer now lead a diamond with Subash playing the deuce and declarer the J and you win the Queen . Now what ?  Declarer has 11 pts or so and partners lead could be top of nothing so you have time to switch to a club . Wait a minute , Subash played the 2 of diamonds in a non count situation . This means he likes his own lead . You return a heart and then get in again with a diamond and clear the hearts . With the last diamond you switch to a spade and Subash wins the queen & cashes 2 hearts ( starting with Q1098x ) and switches to a club .  You win the K and return a spade to partners Ace and you beat 2NT  two tricks . Swiching to a club gives declarer his contract .

    Another instance of the Smith echo was with Peter Jones  Peter lead a club from A10xxx in a 1NT   3NT auction .

  I had xxx xxx xxxx QJx . I played the J of clubs and declarer won the K . Declarer now went to the board and knocked out the Ace from his sold heart suit in dummy . I played the 2 of hearts in a non count situation . This meant I liked his club lead . Peter continued clubs and I won the Q and we beat 3NT . 

Sometimes against 3NT you have AKJxx of a suit so you lead the king to see if partner likes the suit or not. If he does not you switch to a high card in another suit saying do not lead that suit back when you get in – lead my suit. What if you have QJx in your second suit and you lead the queen. Partner gets in and she does not know whether to continue that suit or switch back. Smith echoes is the answer. If you want the 1st suit lead back than play low when declarer attacks his suit. This of course means you like your own opening lead.

    Smith( reverse ) echoes are a tiny advantage but an advantage nevertheless . I recommend giving them a try ...