HSP: A Two-fer

"When I'm your partner, the secret to this game is to Help Stupid Partner." -- Steve B.

Dealer: S Vul: None	♠ A K Q 3 ♥ K Q 2 ♦ 10 9 8 6 3 ♣ 9
	N W E S	♠ J 10 7 5 4 2 ♥ A J 10 5 ♦ — ♣ K J 3

West	North	You	South
			2 ♦
Pass	5 ♦	All pass

Partner led the ♠ 9. Your partnership agreement is to lead the highest card from three small ("top of nothing"). So, partner might have started with any of three possible spade holdings: the singleton ♠ 9, a doubleton spade ♠ 9 x, or all three of the missing spades ♠ 9 8 6. Declarer called for the ♠ A from dummy. Your play?

ANSWER: Play the ♠ J, showing the ♠ 10 and suit-preference for hearts. By convention, signaling with an honor normally shows the next lower honor in sequence. Thus, playing the ♠ J shows that you hold the ♠ 10 as well. But here nobody cares that you have the ♠ 10. More importantly, an unusual high card (the ♠ J) shows suit-preference for the higher-ranking side suit.

• If partner had a singleton spade, let's hope she has the ♦ A and another diamond; she can win the first round of diamonds, and lead to your ♥ A to get her spade ruff for down one.
• If partner had a doubleton spade and the ♦ A, she'll need to lead a heart when she wins the first round of diamonds. Otherwise, declarer can discard heart losers on dummy's spades to make five if declarer's shape is 1=2=6=4 (or even six, if declarer has the ♣ A too).
• If partner had three spades to start with, declarer will discard a loser on the ♠ A and partner will realize you are showing her where your side-suit winners are.

THE PRINCIPLE: The play of an unnecessarily high card is always a suit-preference signal. You could have played the ♠ 7 as an encouraging signal in spades; the smaller spades still concealed in your hand ensure that partner would recognize the ♠ 7 as a "high encouraging" spade.

BONUS MINUTE: If you held the ♣ A instead of the ♥ A, you would have played the ♠ 2 as suit-preference for clubs. With so many spades in your hand, it is unlikely that a spade continuation is a possibility. More likely, partner had a singleton or declarer is void; in either case, partner will be trying to read your card as a suit-preference signal.

The complete hand:

	♠ A K Q 3 ♥ K Q 2 ♦ 10 9 8 6 3 ♣ 9
♠ 9 ♥ 9 8 6 3 ♦ A 7 ♣ Q 10 8 7 4 2	N W E S	♠ J 10 7 5 4 2 ♥ A J 10 5 ♦ — ♣ K J 3
	♠ 8 6 ♥ 7 4 ♦ K Q J 5 4 2 ♣ A 6 5

-- Ray 
Better Bridge in 5 Minutes. Guaranteed! (or the next one is free)