Improve Your Play #07-06

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

The three primary signaling methods for the defense are attitude, count, and suit preference. The first two are used on every hand and it's surprising how often suit preference opportunities arise. Take a look at this one.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand #6
Dlr	E
Vul	BOTH

	KJ3
	KQ874
	AJ
	J76

	A
	J5
	Q76542
	Q1085

	942
	A10963
	K108
	92

	Q108765
	2
	93
	AK43

West	North	East	South
		Pass	2
Pass	4	All Pass

BIDDING: South had a routine weak two bid and North raised to game. This raise is fine with partnerships who employ sound weak two openers, but if your partner is less structured, the North hand should only make a game try.

PLAY: West had no attractive opening lead and finally decided to lead the ace of spades to look at dummy. He saw it might be necessary to switch to a club or a diamond before declarer could establish dummy's heart suit, but which suit should he lead? After some thought he concluded it unlikely the weak two bidder held both club honors so he switched to a club. Declarer won with dummy's jack and it was now easy to draw the remaining trumps and establish a heart honor for a diamond discard. A diamond shift at trick two would have resulted in down one, with declarer losing a trick in each suit.

The chance to succeed was missed at trick one. East should have played the nine of spades to indicate interest in the diamond suit. With club strength, the deuce of spades would be correct. This type of suit preference situation occurs on almost every hand. When partner knows (or it doesn't matter) how many cards you hold in a suit, the card you play in that suit should tell partner where your strength is. The two suits in question are usually obvious. Sometimes there is your partner's suit, declarer's suit and two others. Or, there may be declarer's suit, a danger suit, and two others. It is those "other" suits that you use your carding to give information to your partner.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.