Sunday, October 24, 2004 3:51 AM

Foster Echos

PITBULLS:

You lead your 4^th best against a contract of 3NT and an honour wins on board. Also you lead coded 10’s & 9’s and an honour wins on the board . What is partners signal ? Count or attitude ? You can argue the merits of showing attitude and you can make a case that the signal should show count. In some cases partner can block your suit by playing the wrong card under the under the honour at trick one. Anyway a convention called “Foster echos” was invented to help in these situations (only ). Foster echos are a combination attitude , count and unblocking play all rolled into one concept. The one concept is that Foster echos demand your 2^ND highest card be thrown under the honour won on the board.. If the card you play is the 2^nd highest , partner can quite often “fill in the blanks” and figure out the denomination of your highest card . If you have a doubleton , by playing your deuce or similar low card it is obviously a doubleton since that’s your 2^nd highest.

The following from the Internet on Foster Echos

Foster Echo
  
Against a NT contract, when 3rd hand cannot win the trick, 3rd hand is expected to play the 2nd 
highest card. This informs partner that he has a higher card which is very useful information.
 With 4+ cards, 3rd hand plays second, third and finally lowest card. 
With three cards, 3rd hand plays second, and then lowest card. For example:
 
 Partner leads the 4 of spades (4th best leads) against 
 3NT, dummy has K72 of spades, declarer calls for the 
 King which holds. Your spade holding is: 
 
 J95 play the 9 and next play the 5
 T65 play the 6 and next play the 5
 9853 play the 8, then the 5 and finally the 3
 Q9653 play the 9, then the 6 and finally the 3 
 T4 play the 4 and then the Ten  
 
The Foster Echo thus shows count while retaining the highest card 
(if needed later) and to tell partner you have that card. 

Here are a number of examples from play . I lead my 4^th best club from Q10xxx and the singleton K won on the board . I can count 8 tricks for declarers and I have a number of entries. The danger is leading a club into declarers AJ of clubs which gives away the 9^th trick . Tom plays the club 9 under the King. If that is his 2^nd highest club I know he has the jack ! Say you lead the 10 playing coded 10’s & 9’s against 3NT from AJ108x and the King wins on the board. Tom again plays the 9 as his second highest . You get in again and you have no worries about setting up the queen as partner must hold that card.

You lead 4^th best heart against 3NT from K10852 and the heart queen wins on the board. Partner plays the 3 as his 2^nd highest. You now know partner has a doubleton and declarer can be has heart rich as AJ9x . You lead from sequences QJ10xx or J109xx and an honour wins on board. Quite often partners 2^nd highest card will show the outstanding honours at trick one which can be very helpful. You have K10854 and you lead 4 th best and the Ace wins on board and partner produces the jack as his 2^nd highest. You know he has the queen and the necessary unblocking is taking place.

You lead 4^th best from J8643 and the Kx wins on board . Partner playing the 10 from Q1092 which is necessary to unblock the suit .You get in and continue your suit and partner plays the 9 .You get in again and the suit is unblocked to run them. A nice side effect of Foster echos is it forces you to unblock properly !!

The convention was invented for NT contracts but I see no reason why it can not be used in a suit contract. You lead the 9 from Q109xx and the Ace wins on the board. Partner plays the 8 as her 2^nd highest. You now know that she has the Jack or King. If you are going to take chances and lead from such holdings in suit contracts than why not Foster Echos ?

Two signaling understandings came up in Montreal which are not related to foster echos but interesting to discuss. I bid a suit so Tom dutifully leads the deuce from 942 . It is very important that I know that he has 3 as opposed to 4 as I get end played if we do not get it right. I won the queen the 1^st trick and I lead the Ace the next trick. Tom plays the 9 instead of the 4 to indicate that he has 3. We now beat the hand. If Tom had 4 he would just go up the line when following suit.

Another hand the opponents were in 4♠ and the board was ♠ Qxx ♥ Qxx ♦ xx ♣J10xxx . I held xx AKxx KJxx xxx and led the heart king which in our system demands count. Tom played the deuce showing an even number with our methods. Declarer had the diabolical hand AKxxxx xx xx AKQ so how do you prevent them from making an impossible game ? You can do nothing about the queen of the hearts on the board so why not cash the other heart honour for suit preference purposes. Tom throws the heart 10 under it so you switch to a diamond ( higher ranking ) of the two minors and beat the hand.