Saturday, August 10, 2002 5:34 PM
Hand Evaluation - Mount PIOTR ( Smith
Echos )
PITBULLS:
On Thursday
nite , Mount Piotr erupted and molten lava stewed out all over the table . What
happened to cause the eruption actually has some Bridge merit for the rest of
us so another reminder to Piotr that his eruption was heard for miles away so
spread ashes all over the place . Therefore , we will take the liberty of
discussing the hand :
The hand ♠AKQxx ♥Ax ♦J10x
♣9xx
Mr. Gandolfo
was in 3NT , Kiz led a heart . Tom ducked , Piotr played the 10 , Tom won the
jack . Tom layed down the Jack of spades , Kiz and dummy played small with
Klimo playing the 7 . Tom continued with a spade ,but Klimo played the 2 of
spades . Tom started running the spades but Klimo followed with the 5 of spades
.
As the
obnoxious dummy that I am , I noticed Klimo's gyrations with his
spade cards . Therefore , I turned to Kiz and asked her what they meant . Dead
silence from her , so as a good dummy I went back to sleep . Tom ran the
rest of the spades and Kiz made a fatal club sluff so Tom made his 3NT . Mount
Piotr then erupted.
Expert
partnerships will use every advantage to help partner out in defense .
Piotr's play of the spade cards was obviously meant to give partner a message
to help her sluff or ask for a shift . Giving count in this solid spade suit
is rather silly , so experts assign
a meaning to the order in which they follow suit .What would
the deuce of spades played initially mean ? We have discussed
that before so that is a reverse Smith echo saying that I like your lead partner . Piotr went
out of his way to play his highest spade first which means he dislikes hearts. What meaning could be
assigned to subsequent cards which would
easy on the memory and helpful for the defense ? Klimo had diamonds under
control with the Ace & King in his hand . Diamonds are the higher ranking
of the two suits left that have been untouched by declarer. If Klimo had club
cards , his 2nd card would have been the five so the 3rd card can be suit
preference. You do not have the luxury of suit preference with only two cards
in declarer’s suit.
O.K. if he
played his spades with the 7 first followed by the deuce and finally the five
, what would that mean ? The immediate High Low playing upside
down signals means that I have nothing useful to say . For memory aid
purposes this is like a high/low in upside signals ( nothing pard ) . With 2
spades you are restricted to either
liking partners opening lead or not . The 3rd spade, gives you the luxury of
giving partner further information so can be used as suit preference. What if
Piotr had the Ace & King of clubs ? Piotr would play the 7 of spades
followed by the 5 of spades followed by the deuce ( suit preference card
). He did not HI/lLow immediately which gives no information . He
discouraged immediately & used his 3rd card as suit preference. This Smith Echo is like cheating !
Finally a use for the MUD convention which standards for playing your cards in a middle , up , down order . Playing Smith echos , this means you do not like partners lead but in addition , you have no suit preference. The highest card played initially is a wake up signal meaning “partner interpret the 3rd card as suit preference “. As a memory aid , middle cards played initially usually means no suit preference.
PITBULLS : put this carding idea in your repertoire
PIOTR : More Yoga please
An article by Mike Lawrence indicating a similar standard concept ( not Smith Echos ) but reading suit preference into the order of following suit.
Bridge Defense By Mike Lawrence
EAST DEALS
NORTH-SOUTH VULNERABLE
|
West |
North |
East |
South |
|
Pass |
1NT* |
||
|
Pass |
6NT |
Pass |
Pass |
|
Pass |
*1NT = 15-17
|
|
NORTH |
The only good thing for
West is that he has an easy lead in the jack of clubs. East plays the two and
South wins the king. Declarer starts diamonds by playing the ace and leading
the four to dummy's king. East follows with the two and ten. Declarer leads a
third diamond to his jack as East follows again with the six. You have to find
a discard now and another one on the next diamond. Do you have any idea what
you will discard? Why?
You can afford to throw
your spades, but not your hearts. Partner has given you the clue. Did you
notice it? When South played three rounds of diamonds, East played, in order,
the two, ten, and six. East has gone out of his way to play diamonds in an
abnormal sequence. Assuming your partner does not play random cards and that he
is trying to help you defend, you can infer that partner has something in
spades. You should keep your hearts and give up the spade suit.
|
|
|
|
Declarer will try the
hearts, but when they don't divide, he will have to fall back on the spade
finesse, which will lose. Down one. If West had discarded a heart, 6NT would
have made. The key was East's play of the ten of diamonds at trick two. It was
an abnormal play which carried a message.
West had to notice it and
then he had to interpret it correctly.
East's cards told
West he could abandon spades in order to save hearts. Because East WENT OUT OF
HIS WAY to signal in diamonds, West was entitled to look for a message. If East
had played diamonds in normal order, that is 2, 6, 10, there would have been no
message intended.
This
really was a nice defense. West has one point yet he has the setting trick
if he can just tell what it is. Well done.