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 simply 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 echo means I can ruff something ( old fashioned ) .
7. A double to wake up partner that a ruff is needed or something other unusual play is required
8. Signaling with honour cards is a violent suit preference signal
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 so 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. When 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 reached 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. When Tom
does not switch to a heart,
they make +620 instead of down one as the heart gets pitched on
the long club. Bridge is a partnership game so “wake up” partner when you can !
Here
is a recent trivial example of a wake-up
signal. The opponents stumble into a spade slam off two Aces. Kiz leads the ♦A & Chris played the ♦J . Signaling with an honour at the slam level does
not show J10 as that is silly. A 10 will not be
important in a slam contract. With low level contracts an honour
can mean a top of sequence. At higher levels, an honour
means a “wake up “ signal. This honour signal is a violent suit preference for a ♥ shift. In fact , you lose your ♥Ace when you do not switch.