Monday, April 25, 2005 11:10 AM

Hand Evaluation – Signals ( Patterns & Count )

PITBULLS:

Translating bidding into patterns should be 2^nd nature for good defenders. Their bidding is not the exclusive property of their partnership so you can help yourself to the information for defensive purposes. This is why experts ask a lot of questions on their bidding. They want to get a tentative count of the hand & not just to learn their bidding system J . You plug their bidding into a pattern so you are off to an excellent start for defensive purposes. You base your opening lead on the pattern that you have developed ( translated ) from the bidding.

The hard auctions for defenders are the 1NT – 3NT auctions or the jump to game auctions . The bidding has given you no clue on how to lead or how to form a plan for defense. Here is where signaling comes in. Signals have a priority pecking order . Attitude , count & finally suit preference . Attitude is on top of the scheme of things with suit preference at the bottom. Partner has a duty to give count when declarer is playing a suit ( attitude when you are leading a suit ) . You take this signal & plug it into a pattern to guide your defense. You know what suits to keep , how many tricks declarer has , avoiding end plays , squeezes and all sorts of defensive plays based on the “count” of declarers hand. 2^nd discards are defined as either original or present count by established partnerships depending on their agreement. I play present count . Of course, the 1^st discard is odd/even or upside down attitude whatever your partnership has agreed. The odd/even scheme is far superior to standard in that declarer cannot false card. Your card is either even or odd so declarer cannot practice deception. Suit preference is built into that scheme so that is a great help. The 2^Nd discard in a suit when you have already shown attitude is count - if it is a high spot says I had an original odd number, a low card an original even number of cards in that suit having that particular agreement. In rare case when partner has had a chance to discard a 3^rd card in a suit , it can be interpreted as suit preference.

Lets do some examples

Dummy ♠ Axx ♥ Kxx ♦ QJ10 ♣ xxxx

You K10xx ♥ Qxx ♦ xxx ♣ Jxx

You lead the spade deuce , partner plays the queen , returns a spade with declarer playing the jack & ducking your King. You return a spade , the Ace wins on the board , partner follows & declarer throws a heart. Ok 1^st pattern to plug in is the spade suit. 4-4-3-2 with declarer having 2 spades. Declarer now starts the diamond from the board , partner shows out on the 3^rd diamond discarding the heart 3. You play odd/even attitude discards so partner likes hearts. The diamond pattern is 5-3-3-2 so declarer has 5 diamonds to run . On the 4^th diamond you let a heart go , partner discards the 9 of hearts. This shows an original odd number of hearts ( 2^nd discard ) . Was it 3 or 5 ? It cannot be 3 as partner has stiffed down to the Ace of hearts so give partner an original 5 hearts. The heart pattern is 5-3-3-2 so declarer has only two hearts ! Declarers pattern is now complete and he opened an off shape 1NT with ♠Jx ♥Jx ♦AKxxx ♣AKxx . On the 5^th diamond you let another heart go as a club sluff will give him the contract. Partner has only two clubs ( Qx ) so your jack of clubs is the killer. You may have kept your jack of clubs anyway but partners signals demanded that you keep your club. Get into the habit of plugging signals into patterns just like you do with the bidding. You will be rewarded +100 instead of –630 !!