Here is a good defensive puzzle. You are East. How do you plan to defend after partner leads the queen of hearts?
Tag Archives: Suit Preference Signals
Put yourself in the East seat on this hand. You open one heart. LHO overcalls one spade. Partner raises you to two hearts. RHO advances with three spades, and you bid four heats. LHO competes to four spades, ending the auction.
Partner leads the ace of hearts, and you are disappointed to see dummy come down with the king. You follow with the heart deuce, informing partner of your preference for a club shift. Partner cooperates, leading the eight of clubs. Declarer calls for the 10 from dummy. What card to you play and why?
Hint: What is partner telling you with that eight of clubs?
- Is partner is leading the top card from a doubleton? If so, what is declarer’s holding in clubs?
- Or is partner leading low from three or more cards to an honor? If so, what is declarer’s holding in clubs?
Now you know what to do, right? Yes, right! (It always helps to put cards on the table if you are not seeing the possibilies.)
Your partner opens one club in 2nd seat. Right-hand opponent overcalls one diamond. You respond one heart with a nice 10 points:
You
Left-hand opponent passes, partner rebids two clubs, and right-hand opponent rebids two diamonds. That’s where the bidding ends.
You lead the ace of clubs and see this dummy:
Dummy
Partner encourages with the eight of clubs, so you continue with the nine of clubs to partner’s king. Now partner continues with the deuce of clubs, queen of clubs from declarer, and you ruff with the five of diamonds. What do you do next?
Larry Cohen provides some guidance on his site: https://www.larryco.com/bridge-articles/defensive-signals-signaling
Here are the last two exercises from Wednesday’s class:
Exercise 3. Defense puzzle
Put yourself in the East seat. Bidding was:
West leads the 5C and you see this dummy in North
North calls for the jack. What do you make of West’s lead? What is your plan? Give me your ideas in the comments. I will post the solutions on Sunday.
Exercise 4. Declarer play puzzle
You are South in four hearts after the following auction:
Do your like the bidding? How many losers do you have? What do you make of West’s lead? What is your plan? Give me your ideas in the comments. I will post the solutions on Sunday.