Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Signals do not replace bridge logic

The auction has gone:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
Me
Pass
Pass
1
2
3
Dbl
3
4
Dbl
All Pass

And they are playing 4H doubled.  I held:
S
Me
Jxxx
J
xxx
AKxxx

I lead the Ace of clubs and dummy comes down holding:
W
West
AQx
Jxxx
Q10x
10xx

Under my Ace of clubs lead, partner plays the Jack of clubs.  We play upside-down signals, attitude to first trick.  The Jack is, therefore, discouraging but partner might also play the Jack to deny a touching honor.  Plan the defense.

First of all, it appears that my 3H limit bid gave West a cheap entry into the auction. Bidding 3S would have put him under pressure. But that is water under the bridge. Can we beat 4H doubled?

At the table, I failed to see past "Jack of clubs is discouraging." In retrospect, I should have applied some bridge logic because partner's signal has completely clarified the position.  If partner has Jack-third and is discouraging, then declarer has the queen of clubs and since dummy has the 10, I lose nothing by cashing the second club. Also, with dummy's spade holding, it appears that we are not getting a spade trick. Where are partner's 11 or so opening points? The only way to beat this is for partner to have the AK of diamonds or a doubleton club.  If partner has 3 clubs, 5 spades and 2-3 hearts, then declarer must have 3-4 diamonds, so partner's diamond tricks are not going anywhere. I should play the two top clubs, and lead a club for a ruff. If partner has the Ace of diamonds or the KJ of diamonds, he will ultimately come to one more trick.

9 comments:

  1. If your partner owned Jx of clubs and you were playing UDCA, why would he not encourage by playing his "x" at Trick 1?

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    1. He didn't want me underleading to his Queen of clubs ...

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    2. Lak, if he held CQJ, wouldn't his normal play at Trick 1 have been the Q and not the J? I don't see how playing UDCA would change that.

      Sometimes UDCA players can get tripped up when one hand has to play an honor in order to unblock a suit -- winning tricks takes precedence over signaling -- even though he wants to encourage continuation of the suit led ... but I don't see how your UDCA agreements should affect partner's play here. I would think the Cx play sounds to be the right card to follow suit from Jx.

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    3. I believe the difference is between Qxx or Qx vs. Jx. He can play the x from the first two holdings without fear of contradiction. From Jx, playing the x risks me thinking that he held the queen (a small risk, but still a risk).

      The point of the post is that even after an unhelpful signal, we could have still recovered if I had stopped to think.

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    4. Maybe I am being dense, Lak, but I still do not follow.

      Why wouldn't partner want a club continuation with each of the three holdings you present: Qxx, Qx, Jx? Doesn't he want you to continue CK and then a third club in each situation? If "yes", then he should play "x" at Trick 1. Granted, you can't tell from his "x", whether he owns Qx or Jx, but why does that matter since your partner will ruff the third round in each case?

      When your partner did play the J at Trick 1, I would have placed him with a singleton J. From Jxx, he would/should play his larger x, rather than risk giving declarer a third round club trick by offering out his J, just in case the suit around the table is AKxxx, Txx, Jxx, Qx.

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  2. Lak: By your agreements, what does partner play from xx in such a situation? The high card to deny possession of the queen, or the low card to encourage a continuation of the suit?

    Jeff: I believe your interpretation of a positive attitude signal is the standard one, but it can be useful to define attitude as the ability to win (or withstand) an immediate underlead. Such partnerships would define count and attitude situations more clearly, for ex. "A asks for count and K for attitude", or agreements based on the level of the contract being defended.


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    Replies
    1. Higher card to deny the Queen.

      Yes, having an agreement to show count on the lead of an Ace would help in this (and many other) situations.

      We had agreed that on leading King from KQ, partner would not encourage with a doubleton, and encourage only he holds the A or J (to prevent a Bath coup). For simplicity, we decided to play the touching honor agreement for all leads of an honor. But the Ace has to be different from the King. Count is far more useful on the lead of an Ace.

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  3. Unless the partnership has a contrary agreement, the Trick 1 signal is not a count signal but an attitude signal. If third hand would rather his partner continue the suit led than make an obvious shift, then third hand should encourage. Having seen an ace lead, presumptively from some AKx+ holding, third hand would typically encourage from either a doubleton (whether Qx, Jx, or xx) or from a holding that includes the queen. Again, unless you have a partnership agreement distinguishing leads of aces from leads of kings, the signal by third hand is wholly attitude, and not based just upon whether he owns the queen. I think the jack was a misleading signal .. but it would/should have worked out, since the only time the jack would seem to be the right card with which to signal, is when the CJ is singleton.

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