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Acol at BBO
Hand of the Week - 24 May 2006
Discarding Your Partner's Signal
by Coch Draig

Recently, whilst playing at a local East Wales club an innocent routine looking hand [aren't they all!!!!] caught my eye as I was looking on as dummy.  It made me realise that sometimes you are better off without your partner's help, however good their intentions might be.

All vulnerable
Dealer South
Spades   10 7
Hearts   K Q J 6 3
Diamonds   A 9 5 2
Clubs   A J   
Spades   A J 9 4 3
Hearts   A 4 2
Diamonds   8
Clubs   9 6 5 2    		Spades   K Q 8 5 2
Hearts   -
Diamonds   Q 7 6 3
Clubs   K 8 7 4   
Spades   6
Hearts   10 9 8 7 5
Diamonds   K J 10 4
Clubs   Q 10 3   
Lead: Diamonds3
South
Pass
4Hearts		 West
Pass
Pass		 North
1Hearts
Pass		 East
1Spades
Pass

Well I should think the auction would be very similar on most tables although many of us would bid 4Spades over 4Hearts but let's not debate that as it's not what this is about. At first glance you would think that after receiving the obvious Spades lead declarer also loses the HeartsA and an unavoidable Clubs loser on the finesse meaning that the success of the contract will be dependent on declarer's ability to find the DiamondsQ. Knowing that East has values by her participation in the auction it's correct to take the finesse through East, so we should expect the vast majority of people in 4Hearts to make it.

However like so many contracts a different lead at trick 1 can change a hand completely, as we will now see from the hand above. On this occasion East found the lead of the Diamonds3. Why and how this defender found such a lead I don't know but, hey, you can't knock success. The Diamonds3 is the only lead that can guarantee to defeat the contract, you don't believe me? Well let me tell you a short story that has everything including, doom and gloom, over confidence, betrayal and relief.

The Diamonds3 hit the table and after partner had spotted that this lead took away any doubt about which way she would tackle the two way diamond finesse she confidently, or dare I say almost smugly took trick 1 in her hand with the 9. In contrast East could see nothing but doom and gloom and she began beating herself up for not going with the room and leading the more obvious SpadesK. Surprisingly West who just witnessed his partner concede what looked to be the contract on a plate appeared very tranquil perhaps even a tad mischievous. Declarer continued with the HeartsK, but even discovering the 3-0 trump break did not stop my partner from looking like the proverbial cat who had the cream or in this case the declarer who had the contract. Little did she know though that West was about to pull the plug on the contract.......well that was until his partner planted a seed of doubt. West had it all planned out, win the first heart, underlead the SpadesA to partner's king, who will then realise the importance of them being back on lead and give West his diamond ruff. West then sits back and waits for east to win the ClubsK to defeat the contract. However, East at trick 2 correctly discarded the Clubs8 [they discard high to encourage]. So West now has a big decision, does he: -
  1. Ignore partner's advice and go with the original idea and switch to a small spade, playing partner for the SpadesK as an entry.
  2. Take on board the information partner has given him and play East for the ClubsA instead of the SpadesK and switch to a club.
Now I don't know about you but during my infant years of bridge even still now on occasions I get told that your partner is the only person at the table you can trust. West obviously got told the same thing because after several minutes of torment he decided to end the mystery by trusting his partner and switching to a club. My partner, who's danger radar was well and truly whirring by now shot up with the ClubsA refusing the club finesse. At this point West began to think of the most painful torturous punishments known to bridge players ready for his partner. North who in the space of 5 minutes went from a rosy coloured red complexion to a pale white was beginning to regain some colour in her cheeks. The remaining trumps were drawn and the marked diamond finesse taken before conceding a club for 10 tricks.

Now before you all start feeling to sympathetic to West let's look at this from the other side of the table. Here are 2 reasons why I believe East was correct to signal for a club switch: -
  1. Lets change West's distribution slightly, what if the hand was SpadesJ x x x x  HeartsA x x  Diamonds8 x x  ClubsA x. If West had held this hand then its essential East discards a high club to identify the potential club ruff for West which would defeat the contract.
  2. Surely the idea of a discard is to give as much information to partner about your hand that you can. Bearing that in mind West must know by the auction that East will have at least l of the missing spade honours, so why waste a discard to confirm something partner almost certainly knows you hold already? I think it makes much more sense to tell partners something new that they don't know, on this occasion it was a club control
Every good story has a moral and this one has two of them. Firstly, before you start jumping up and down at the very hint of a mistake from partner, try seeing the hand through their eyes because very often you get a completely different view. Secondly, when you are declarer of a contract which looks like cannot fail be careful, because things are often happening which we can't see or choose not to see and as I know from experience the egg is never far from your face.


Acol at BBO © 24 May 2006