Movie #10: Page 3

Placing south with all the missing face cards, partner's original distribution was either 3-2-4-4 or 3-1-5-4.  He might be able to help you with the diamond nine, but you shouldn't have to gamble on that.  It being wildly unlikely that you ever have discussed this sort of scenario with your partner, do you have any ideas as to how to handle this problem in the future?

Situations frequently arise in which one defender has nothing to contribute in the way of honor strength; in those cases, the best that that player can do is to help partner with the count.  Unfortunately, on today's hand there was no opportunity to make a key suit-length signal in a red suit in time to be useful — even after seven tricks had been played!  I offer the following suggestion as to how to deal with such cases.

By default, every hand contains either three suits of even length or three suits of odd length (a void is even length).  Many years ago, some bridge writer suggested using a trump echo to indicate one or the other of these patterns.  Trying that method for a while, the tactic was abandoned, partly because the mental strain was considerable, but mostly because one's choices of trump plays can be put to better use.

In uncommon situations such as today's deal, however, a simple hand-pattern signal could prove invaluable.  Partner had 144 different ways to play his seven black cards; surely, something meaningful could be made of all those options, even by a pair of non-robots!  Here is one option:

Because a high-low signal most commonly denotes a suit of even length, the idea is to play a series of unnecessarily high cards to indicate a predominantly even-oriented hand — that is, one with three suits of even length.  That should be easy enough to remember.

So with this east hand: ♠942 ♥7 ♦87532 ♣J873

Cards are played in standard order; that is, spades [2-4-9] and clubs [7-3-8-J].  The implied emphasis on odd length leaves declarer with a 4-3-2-4 pattern; so you discard a diamond and keep your heart stopper.

But when holding this original collection: ♠942 ♥72 ♦8753 ♣J873

East plays spades [2-9-4] and clubs [8-7-3-J], both being natural counts yet unnatural sequences.  This combination of plays denotes three even-length suits; so declarer must be 4-2-3-4, and you hold onto your three diamonds.

Note that the club jack should not be released early in this layout; leaving the master club in dummy would provide a late entry for a potential long-suit trick in hearts, making partner's life somewhat more stressful.

Perhaps the best method of all, however, would be the easiest one to remember: simply agree that any non-standard sequence of plays indicates three odd-length suits.  (Your memory-mnemonic is: Odd play = Odd-oriented hand.)  That way, even the play in a doubleton suit could convey the message quickly.

This method could optionally be refined if desired, if one has at least three cards to play in the suit being led.  The oddball suit actually could be identified fairly easily.

Whatever is decided, you and your partner would do well to come up with some agreement for this type of situation; at least you will be ready for it next time!