Posted 2012-February-15, 17:36
i though these two hands had a similiar look to them, they are both easy, and either require no cooperation, or a small amount of cooperation for a partner (you) if you are partially asleep.
On the first hand, you can throw clubs till the cows come home while waiting for a signal from partner (you can stiff your ♣K or even discard it). In fact, assuming your partner would not have led the ♣Q without the jack, you can come down to ♦Kx and ♥qjx and rest assured you will set the contract. So no signal is really needed at all, although a heart signal would help in case your partner tried a sneaky club queen without the jack. So the first hand was very modest one requiring either no cooperation, or a very little cooperation, just some way to signal heart values.
The 2nd hand is falls in the same boat, as phil correctly noted, if south's king is the heart king, he has 13 tricks (all the cards in dummy are already good, except the three hearts. If south has the ak of hearts, that takes care of the two little hearts and the heart queen is then a winner. For counters, that is 3♠, 3♥, 1♦ and 6♣. So it is always safe to abandon hearts here. That is just play bridge, there can never be a need to hold onto four hearts to the jack. Should you fall asleep, and not realize that partner has to have the heart king or the hand is over, partner could play to wake you up, by a s/p signal on the 2nd round of clubs, but only if you have some agreement that such a play is made in this situation.
The signaling gets much harder (and necessary) as we move forward.
--Ben--
The club queen might not be your choice, but that is what was played at the table.
Clear signaling can avoid mistakes like this one. Poor EAST has a great hand, but has to decide which of three suits to give up. Most of us would have given up clubs, but that let's ignore that obvious solution.
Trick one, east might want to send a positive attitude signal. The stanard signals will play a large club to signal they like clubs, udca players would signal a positive attitude signal by playing a low club. East players who think they will have to be responsible for both diamonds and hearts, might deny values in clubs to force partner to hold onto his supposed ♣J.
On the 2nd spade, east would want to signal diamond value. In standard, it would be a high diamond discard, in udca, a low diamond discard. The lavinthal discard people would discard a low club and plan on reinforcing the signal with low-higher discards later as well. Roman signal people will have a problem. They don't have an odd diamond to discard, can't really afford a heart yet (no signal from partner showing a surprise heart value) so the best they can do is perhaps the ♣6.
West in the meanwhile will want to signal his heart value. Standard players by discarding a high heart on the third spade, udca a low heart, and roman player the heart 5.
After west shows heart value and of course the known club jack, east has an easy time holding on to diamond. On the hand, east should give count in diamonds (udca sequence 2-7, standard 7-2), and throw those early (giving s/p well before this, so this will be count).
In the alternative method, east plays spade jack (to show heart value). Normally, honors are not used for this signal, but with the dummy's spades, the jack is clearly just a "big spot card." West might think this was a singleton spade, but when east plays a low spade on the next round, it confirms the heart signal. West knows that the 2nd spade by east was not a substitute count in clubs -- because he can see it was the 13th spade, but if west could have another spade, east would have wait and see if west had a third spade. Meanwhile east spade at trick two is not a signal, it was also forced. However, on trick 3, east freely discards a low ♣ as s/p showing a diamond value (this will count as "first suit" led by declarer since there was no free will on the first round of spades). On the third spade, west discards either a high diamond or high club to show an "odd" original club count. Meanwhile, west, on the third round of spades will get to give a subsitute count in clubs. A low heart, a low club, or a low diamond will all show an original even count in clubs.
Thus, all the methods will allow West to give a clear heart signal which if east believes it, will avoid the horrible mistake made at the table above. Review of the primary signal by west that solves this hand (and this signal comes very early to be clear):
Standard – big heart discard (the six)
UDCA - low heart discard (the 2)
Lavinthal type discard with diamond 7
Roman with heart 3 or 5.
Alternative gets it early with ♠J (the high card always promises value, a low card does not).