Thursday, May 26, 2005 6:08 AM

Hand Evaluation - Defensive Carding ( Context )

PITBULLS:

Signaling methods should change when you know from the bidding the length of partner’s suit. As long as systemically you know this length, different rules should apply. It does not matter whether you play upside down attitude or standard attitude when you have known length in your suit , middle encourages. This is when partner holds the trick by cashing an honour in your suit , on lead or in the middle of the hand. If you have overcalled 2♣, opened a weak two , pre-empted , opened or overcalled a 5 card major , you have known length. Middle encourages , a high card or low card is suit preference. You can get away with this system because count is not important as partner already knows your count. You have known length , so you have many spot cards you can utilize without being ambiguous. You open a weak 2♠ with KQ9872 xxx J10xx void . The opponents are in 4♥ and partner leads the spade Ace. Which card do you play ? You have known length so a middle card encourages . You would like to ruff a club so you play the spade deuce. Partner dutifully switches to a club so you ruff defeating the contract. OK same spade holding but this time they are in 3NT . You play the spade 8 saying let’s keep the spades coming.

OK , now in the middle of the hand , after you opened the bidding 1♠ ♠KQ1073 ♥xx ♦AQx ♣J10x . The board is ♠ xx ♥ AJxxx ♦xxx ♣xxx with declarer in 3♥ . Declarer leads a heart and loses to partners King of hearts. Partner lays down the spade Ace so which spade do you play ? You play 5 card majors so partner knows that you have 5 or more. This is a “known count” situation. You play the spade 10 so a diamond comes back. Declarer has the diamond king with solid clubs so you lose you diamonds unless partner specifically switches to a diamond.

OK , Tom and I have an understanding that a simple raise shows 3 trump. I have ♠Axx ♥J84 ♦Q10xxxx ♣x , partner opens 1♥ . I bid 2♥ , they bid 2♠ which gets raised to 4♠. Partner leads the heart Ace so I play the heart 4 . Partner knows I have 3 hearts so I would have played the 8 ( middle ) to encourage in this known count situation. He dutifully switches to a club. I get in with the Ace of trump and return a heart. Partner wins the king , gives me a club ruff for one down.

This idea works in the middle of the hand also. I raised to two hearts with ♠xxx ♥K72 ♦QJ10xxx ♣x , partner gets in with the trump King in their 4 spade contract. There are 4 baby hearts on the board . Partner , who opened a heart lays down the heart Ace. I play the heart two and hope he has the club Ace . Sure enough partner cashes the club ace giving me a ruff. Remember middle encourage when from the bidding partner has some idea of the length of your suit . The other cards are suit preference. It’s like cheating !!