Now that we have gotten the easiest of the discard winner errors out of the way, it is time to look at some hands where the correct cards to keep are not so clear. On these hands (many hands to follow either in this thread or in new threads on this same topic) you will need cooperation from your partner (and you will have cooperate with him) in order to set the grand slams.
There are rumors that some people communicate while online via phone, skype, aol messenger or sitting right next to each other, but that
is not the kind of communication we are talking about. You will need to provide signals via the cards you play (and NOT the tempo at which you play them) that convey the required information. There are many, many carding agreements you could pursue. As we start off, we will consider six different possible agreements on this first hand. Then we will drop to using just one or two signaling agreement per post -- we can discuss, however, any of these six or your own personal favorites. I am very fond of "substitute count" and other offsuit signals, so some of those will creep in, perhaps too much.
The choices are for count are: standard (high with even, low with odd), udca (low with even, high with odd). A third possibility, scanian signals (a mixture of standard and udca) will not be covered in this thread, but we might touch on if anyone is interested in later defensive threads.
The choice for suit preferences when following suit will always be high for higher suit, low for lower suit. We will acknowledge that upside down suit preference exist, as does other things, but lets keep this part simple when following suit (also in later threads when returning suits but obviously returning suits is not a concern against 7NT).
Suit preference when discarding comes in several options: standard, udca, Lavinthal, revolving Lavinthal, roman. Others exist but that is enough. I will not be dicussing smith echo (or foster echo) but anyone who wants to discuss those as signaling options on any of the hands are free to do so. Also for simplicity, we will not use revolving lavinthal.
These discard situations, when playing standard, a high discard suggest values in the suit discarded, a low discard implies that suit is not guarded. REVERSE the meaning of those discards if you are playing udca discards. In roman discards, odd cards are used to encourage (show value) in that suit, and even cards to discourage (no value in the discarded suit in this case). In Roman, the discouraging cards also carry a suit-preference message, so if the first play is the deuce it will tend to suggest value in a lower ranking suit, while the eight would express interest in a higher ranking suit.
It is also important to give count in suits. One option is to give count on first round of each suit declarer plays (if not trying to win the trick), followed by s/p information given in the same suit. Sometimes, vital information needs to be given in another suit. It is possible to reverse the order of carding, so that first card played in a suit declarer plays is s/p or even count in some other suit (as we will see some examples of that below).
The signal priority to trick one will be attitude, count, suit preference (I realize that some prefer count as initial priority).
- Standard (high with even, low with odd), . First card on a suit played by declarer is count, 2nd card tend to be s/p. First discard low card discouraging, high card encouraging. "remaining count" signals
- UDCA (low with even, high with odd, low card encourage, high card discourages). First card on suit played by declarer is count, subsequent cards tend to be s/p. First discard low card encouraging, high card discouraging (original count signals)
- Lavinthal is like standard except the first discard denys values in discarded suit, and is s/p for the other two suits (high higher of the two suits, low shows value in lower of the two suits), "remaining count" signals
- u-Lavinthal is like udca, except with lavinthal discards instead of udca. (original count signals)
- Roman (we will use upside count and attitude, but first discard an odd card is encouraging, and even card is discouraging and big even card is s/p for higher suit, low even for lower suit, (original count signals)
- Alternative - UDCA count and attitude, first (free) play in a suit led by declarer is s/p (if no s/p attitude was given at trick one), second play in suit played by declarer is substitute count according to rules laid out below. First discard is lavinthal. Subsititute count on declarer's leads after other signals given. (original count signals)
The way the alternative signal works is on the first suit declarer leads, you give s/p signal (if you are not trying to win the trick). On the second lead by declarer you give substitute count either in the suit partner led to trick one (if not given or known), or in dummy's shortest suit. Should dummy have two short suits (equal length) then in the lowest ranking of those suits.
On to the example hand.
Trick Three:
North
Standard and Roman players will discard yet another high club. In standards case, he is showing even number of clubs remaining (even count, standard carding), while the roman player is showing odd number of clubs initially (udca count, original count).
UDCA players if they discarded a club earlier, will discard another (higher club than the 7) to show hopefully odd number of clubs initially, and help point out that the club 7 was a "low" spot card. If he threw a high diamond earlier, he might try low diamond (even number originally), followed by two more diamonds in the order lowest then higher to reconfirm club signal suit preference
Lavinthal players would discard a low club (standard), to show an odd number, while u-Lavinthal players will discard a high club (udca) to show an odd number. We will see what alternative players play when we investigate south's play to trick three.
South:
Lavinthal, u-lavinthal, and roman south's will signal length in diamonds. Standard via remaining count (even) using a high diamond spot, roman via original count, using a high spot (odd number of diamonds originally). Lavinthal and u-lavinthal will signal count via standard (high for even remaining count) for u-lavinthal and udca (high) for odd number of diamonds "original count".
For alternative players, they would use substitute count on the third round of declarer's suit to show legnth in the suit partner led. However in this case since length in spades (the suit led at trick one) is known, the alternative suit is dummy's shortest suit, so hearts. So both north and south would discard a high diamond (udca) to show an even number of hearts.
At the end of trick three, the defense at each table has almost signaled everything they need to send. There will be a few more things to share. The standard and roman's north's had made it perfectly clear to south that they had values in clubs (must be ace from dummy and south's hand). The other three of the other four norths might had to play the low diamond (s/p) at trick one, and udca had to play a high diamond (no diamond interest) or a potentially confusing
♣7. So these north's will play their cards in such a way as to confirm values in clubs (spot cards up the line). The rule here is that count will come first, then any remaining spots are suit preference. So let's take the lavinthal north player as an example. He would play low diamond trick 2 (club value), low diamond trick three (odd number of diamonds remaining), then when he discards his last two diamonds, it will be lowest then next to lowest to confirm the club signal.
North will signal his length in clubs and diamonds, and throw all his diamonds, south will signal his length in clubs and diamonds, and keep three diamonds and one club, and a heart or two. So before declarer gets very far in cashing his winners, NS will have a count on Club, diamonds and spades (and thus hearts, too) at five of the tables, and a count on all the suits directly at the sixth.
That is, except for the alternative player. The alternative north and south's both gave heart count's on the second round of spades, so for them, their next diamond card will be count in diamonds. At this point, both players should have a fairly good idea of EAST'S hand. The eight spades was obvious at trick 2. North will show 5 clubs originally, and count will be given in diamonds (north will pitch all of his eventually). So both partners should work out that east has three diamonds, 1 club, 1 heart.
Declarer will do the best he can, by running eight spades before the diamond AK. At the end of the eight spades, south has to hold onto one club (you will see why) and three diamonds, plus another card. Some people might discard all their clubs knowing their partner has the
♣A (from the signal and cards seen). The need to hold onto the club in this ending would make this a class III hand (protect your partner from a squeeze). The threat card, amazingly wouldn't be dummy's
♣K but rather declarer's singleton
♣2. Let's examine the ending.
NEXT TIME, one more double dummy problem, then single dummy ones.
Help
A club opening lead, and only a club, will defeat this contract. This is not the kind of hand I will be discussing in this thread.
Also, note this thread is not about bidding, the as you can see, other contracts would have been more successful (if you would have lead a club).