DEFENCE – SIGNALLING
In my earlier blogs, I introduced showing “attitude” . As a reminder, when partner is on lead and leads from their suit, if they lead a low card, we play to win the trick and later lead back partner’s suit. If partner plays a high card, and we have an honour, we play as high as we can afford (6+) to say “YES”WE LOVE THAT SUIT PLEASE CONTINUE PLAYING IT or we play a LOW card that says “NO” please SWITCH TO ANOTHER SUIT:
If attitude is ruled out , we give “count”. High followed a low card shows an even number of cards in the suit. Low followed by a higher card indicates an uneven number of cards.
For an in-depth explanation see my previous blogs on the bridge guru site under Tips and Tricks.
Once we rule out attitude and count, there are times when we need to find a way to tell partner which suit to switch too.
This is called showing “SUIT PREFERENCE”.
Here is one example when SUIT PREFERENCE would be used.
The opponents are playing a contract of 4 Hearts ♥️
Partner leads the Ace of Diamonds ♦️
DUMMY goes down and there is a SINGLETON diamond ♦️ on board –
Do you or partner now care that partner has the KING of ♦️?
Answer : NO – ATTITUDE DOES NOT MATTER
Do you or partner need to know how many diamonds your partner has?
ANSWER: NO – COUNT IS RULED OUT
YOU NOW HAVE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO TELL YOUR PARTNER TO SWITCH TO ANOTHER SUIT!!!!
Let’s rule out Declarer’s HEART SUIT
Let’s rule out the DIAMOND SUIT
NOW WE HAVE TWO SUITS LEFT — CLUBS AND SPADES
YOU MUST PLAY A DIAMOND , RIGHT???
MAGIC MOMENT:
If you play a low diamond, YOU ARE REQUESTING A CLUB LEAD
if you play a high diamond, YOU ARE REQUESTING A SPADE LEAD
IMPORTANT : Your Partner Who led MUST PAY ATTENTION TO THE CARD YOU PUT DOWN ON THEIR ACE OF DIAMONDS to get the message!
ALSO, once you and partner agree to show attitude, count and suit preference, it will always be “ON” as part of your signalling.
NOW, there are a few other times you get to use SUIT PREFERENCE and my next blog will pursue Suit Preference. For now start using Suit Preference when Partner leads his Ace and there is a void or Singleton on the board!!!!
Check out the next instalment at
www.thebridgeguru.com
Also check out my fun blog at
www.MargieGrams.com
Happy Defence !
♏️✍🏻
The Bridge Guru 