Tag Archives: Giving partner count

Giving your partner count on defense

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Your left hand opponent opens the bidding with two hearts, partner passes, and right hand opponent raises to four hearts to end the bidding. Partner leads the ace of spades (ace from ace-king) and you see this huge dummy:

nice dummy

Your crummy hand:

crummy hand

Dummy plays a low spade. What spade do you play and why?

When I saw this hand played defender played the deuce of spades and then played the five as partner cashed the king. Low-up told partner that defender had an odd number of spades. Instead defender should play the five and then the deuce (high-low) to convey an even number to partner. Partner correctly decided to give up on a possible spade ruff and did not continue spades at trick three. Defender never did get a ruff. Defender’s wrong signal resulted in a bottom board.