Friday, May
20, 2005 10:31 PM
Hand
Evaluation - The Wakeup Signal
At a
suit contract, a non-systemic
or unusual lead , double or play (excluding
normal suit preference situations) indicates the ability to ruff something or a special
defense required. This concept is not a suit preference
signal in that partner must determine which suit might be ruffed or other
defense. Examples would be:
1. Underleading an ace on the opening lead. (When underleading an ace it is best to lead a false spot card so
that partner is less likely to misplay thinking declarer has the ace or make it
suit preference for the suit you are to ruff.)
2. A non-systemic lead such as the queen from
K-Q or the jack from K-J-10.
3. A blatant, wasteful or illogical signal such
as dropping the king from K-J-x-x when you are marked for length in the suit
4. When a
singleton shows upon the board or
when there is known count , middle encourages , high card is suit
preference for higher suit and low card suit preference for lower suit
5. Smith
echoes wake partner up to the
fact that her lead was appreciated.
Low card in the suit that declarer is attacking means we liked the lead. A high
card means there is a suit preference coming.
6. Trump echos mean
suit preference is coming. Some play that means I can ruff something.
7. A double to wake up partner that
a ruff is needed or something other unusual play is required
The above
list is not all encompassing in the field of “wake up” signals.
The double can be effectively used as a “wake up” signal. A lead directing double
of a slam is just that and could mean that I want to ruff something. A double
of 3NT means I have a long suit somewhere so find it .
Here are some other examples of
“wake up signals” from recent play. Tom Gandolfo & I were on our way to 6♠ so Lana Blackett doubled my 5♦ Blackwood response. Anita Lambert had a void in clubs
so when we arrived at 6♠ she lead the diamond 10 .
The KQJ of diamonds was on the board , Lana
immediately switched to a club which Anita ruffed so Tom & I lost 17 IMPS.
No other defenders in the room defeated 6♠ ! .
Tom asked Lana why she switched to a club. Her answer was that did not know what else to do ! It
should be elementary to beat this contract with a “wake up signal double” by Anita. The double should alert
partner there is an unusual defense required. Anita doubles & leads her deuce of diamonds.
Lana wins her Ace of diamonds so returns a club. This would make sense.
Stan Cabay
came up with another example of a “wake up” signal in defending 3NT. His hand was
♠Q10 ♥Jxxxx ♦Qx ♣AQ9x and he lead 4th best heart. The
dummy hit with ♠ xxx ♥ Kx
♦1098xxxx
♣ x , Lisa held
♠ xxx ♥ xxxx ♦A ♣J1087x Stan lead 4th best heart,
declarer wins the heart king & plays the heart queen under it. Declarer
leads a diamond , Lisa wins the diamond Ace so Stan
throws the queen under it . Do they have a 7-4 diamond fit or is Stan applying
a “wake up” signal ? The diamond queen should
mean one thing at that is the diamonds are ready to roll. Counting tricks this
means 6 diamonds for declarer , 2 hearts so just one
spade would bring the contract home. The diamond queen if interpreted as a
“wake up” signal should mean that a desperate switch is required to beat the
contract. Accordingly the club jack is played and +200 instead of –690 !
I was playing with a tormentee and I held ♠Kxx
♥xxxx ♦x ♣KQJ10x . We bid competitively & pushed the
opponents up to 4♦
with the following
board ♠AQx
♥Qx ♦Kxxxx ♦xxx . Declarer had opened a heart
, partner led the club Ace. I wanted a spade switch so I threw the club King under her Ace .
The spades looked like they were going away on declarers 5 card heart suit if
we do not get the spade trick before a trump is knocked out. Partner continues
the club 9 so I carefully play under it keeping her on lead so that I get the spade switch. No dice , she continues clubs , declarer ruffs , knocks out
partners Ace of trump so we lose –130 instead of +100 and 6 IMPS.
I hold ♠Axx
♥xxxx ♦J109x ♣xx
, partner opens 3♦
with my RHO doubling. With this many diamonds they are in danger of making a
slam so I bid 3♠ as a lead director. Sure enough they eventually get to 6♣
vul & my partner has ♠x ♥xx ♦AKQxxxxx ♣xx . This is a classic “wake up” signal double. You have the stiff spade ,
not the opponents so you double to
wake partner up to that fact. You
double , lead the spade so you win 12 IMPS instead of
losing 17 for a 30 IMP swing ! What if they made the slam doubled
? Nobody else in the Calcutta field was in it so the double makes maybe
a 1 IMP difference.
Llyoda
opened 3♣ , I overcalled 3♥ & partner bid 4♥. Lloyda’s partner held ♠Ax ♥Kxx ♦xxxxxxx ♣K so what should she do ?
Again the classic wakeup signal double.
If you can tell partner by doubling that your King is singleton she
will overtake & give you a ruff. You get one club , a club ruff , a spade & a heart for +200 instead
of –620. Again a lot of IMPS. She did not double so Lloyda ducked the Club Ace, could not get in so I sluffed my club on a spade & made +620.
In Regina ,
the opponents got to 4♠ vul & I had jumped
in diamonds during the auction. Tom Gandolfo led his ♦Q & the board had ♦A10x . Declarer won the Ace & started
drawing trump. On the trump I discarded the ♦K as a “wake up signal” as I wanted a heart switch ( higher
of the two remaining suits ) . You should not just discard indiscriminately for
show as wake up signals
are far more useful. If Tom does not switch to a heart, they make +620 instead of down one as
the heart gets pitched on the long club.