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Is anyone watching?

We should be familiar with the concept of giving one’s partner a ruff. When you do so, you suggest what partner plays next after the ruff. By playing a high card in the suit in which the ruff is given, you suggest partner plays the higher of the non-trump suits and similarly a small card suggests the lower. A middle card means no preference, or perhaps exiting a trump.

That signal can have other uses even when partner does not ruff but has to follow suit.

 

 

After partner’s vulnerable leap, you felt you should double South’s 4bid. You lead 8 to your partner’s A and declarer’s 10 . Partner returns 2 to declarer’s K. Next comes 10 from South. You know this is the bottom of a sequence… but a sequence of how many cards? What to do?

If declarer held SQJT to 7 spades, then the right thing to do would be to play low or else your ace would capture your partner’s singleton king with your ace… not the happiest of events when your partner sees you had a choice! There is nothing to stop that from being the lay-out but it is quite specific and quite rare.

There was another, perhaps not so rare occurrence, that could be the situation here. You are about to play to trick 3. Do you remember trick 2 which finished a second or two ago? Our West remembered it but a second or two too late after he had played low to the 10, potentially a very expensive lapse.

For all East knew, they were and hopefully were, giving you a ruff when they returned the 2 at trick 2. 2 was a pretty definite signal when East had at least five other hearts from which to choose. They might select a lowish heart if they did not hold the K but the 2 was quite definite. Winning the A was definitely the right choice as this was the lay-out:

 what should happen

Partner did have the K but definitely did want you to play a club, as soon as you could. Had West taken the A, they would cash the other black ace and then play a second club. Another round of hearts would either give West an immediate ruff or would promote the 9 as a trick if declarer ruffed high…down 2, nice defence.

what happened

After ducking the 10, West won the J continuation with the ace but the play of 8 from East told them that it was too late to give East a club ruff. West exited a diamond…and whichever diamond South played from dummy, they would have to use a trump to get back to the South hand (with only three clubs missing, South should have won with A and played K discovery play..West’s double did suggest that they might hold the A as well as the A. Surely, if West held a singleton club, they would then play the singleton to try and score the ruff?).

South called for Q which drew the king and a trump. South had to use two more trumps to draw West’s remaining trumps…and now had to guess the true club position. They played a club to the king and could not now afford to ruff the  A with their last trump to play another club. (Dummy had clubs and A left.)

Two club tricks to West saw the contract defeated by one trick when it should have either been defeated by two or not defeated at all.

South was also guilty of not remembering East’s signal at trick 2. Had East held all three clubs, the contract was always one down. Playing K from dummy would have been easier for South…but otherwise, they had to take a first round finesse of the J.

   

“Does no-one watch my signal?” mused East, “not just my partner but declarer as well!”

Can “pass” be correct?

 

2 showed hearts and any other suit, less than an opener…5 hearts, 4+ of the second suit. You did not want to hear partner bid spades if you made an immediate take-out double and so passed, wisely. South’s 2 is “pass or correct” style and when North passed, you knew what their second suit was. So, what now?

Richard Solomon

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