HSP: Partner Needs To Know

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

Ignore the missing side suit cards, they are irrelevant today...

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

HAND #1: South opened 2 NT, North raised to 3 NT. Declarer won the opening heart lead, then led the ♦ 7 from her hand. Partner played the ♦ 3, and declarer played the ♦ K from dummy. Your play?

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

HAND #2: South opened 2 NT, North raised to 3 NT. You led a heart and declarer won in hand. At trick two, declarer led the ♦ 7. Your play?

THE PRINCIPLE: When dummy has a long suit with only one loser and no other entries, the defender without a high honor is in a mandatory count situation. Partner, holding the stopper -- the ♦ A here -- doesn't want to play it right away; that would set up the suit while declarer still has another card in the suit to reach dummy. But if partner waits too long, she might not score the card at all; declarer might get all the tricks she needed from the suit. Even if you and your partner don't normally give count signals, this is a textbook situation where partner needs to know your count in the suit.

Standard count signals are:
  - low then higher shows an odd number of cards in the suit
  - high then low shows an even number of cards in the suit

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

ANSWER #1: East plays the ♦ 2, showing an odd number of diamonds. West will then know to win her ♦ A on the second round of diamonds because declarer only held two, and can no longer reach dummy.

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

ANSWER #2: West plays the ♦ 8, showing an even number of diamonds. East will then know to hold up her ♦ A until the third round of diamonds.

THE PRINCIPLE (again!): When dummy has a long suit with only one loser and no other entries, the defender without a high honor must give a count signal to the first trick in that suit.

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