DEFENSIVE CARDING By Larry Matheny

DEFENSIVE CARDING By Larry Matheny Defending a bridge contract is often difficult but it is much easier when you and your partner are communicating. For this to happen, you must agree on the meaning of each card you play and that isn t easy. Let s start with some carding methods to improve your defense. When following to a trick or discarding, there are three basic signals you can give your partner: attitude, count, and suit preference. In today s session I will give a brief overview of each of these along with examples. There is a general rule that states: When partner leads you give attitude and when declarer leads you give count. This is not always true but is a good guideline. Let s start with the first message you want to send to your partner. ATTITUDE The most common carding method is for a high card to encourage while a low one discourages. Some players reverse this but for today s session we will encourage with high-low. Here is an example that clearly demonstrates that method. Hand#1 KQ42 K86 J632 K3 96 QJ105 874 J1074 85 A974 1095 9865 AJ1073 32 AKQ AQ2 North-South are in 6 and West leads the queen of hearts. South ducks and East should encourage with the nine. This is a very obvious case of attitude. (It 1

also shows North should have bid 6NT to guard his heart king from the opening lead, but that s not today s message.) Now, while you may think that is automatic, let s change to this layout: Hand#2 KQ642 K8 J632 K3 9 QJ105 874 97654 5 A9632 1095 AQJ2 AJ10873 74 AKQ 108 North-South are now in 4 and West leads the queen of hearts. If East will just stop and analyze the hand he will see that a club shift at trick two may be the only way to defeat this contract. Accordingly, he follows to the first trick with the deuce. That should wake up West who sees that any diamond loser isn t going away but a club trick might. Therefore he switches to a low club. After winning two club tricks, East cashes the ace of heart for down one. Note that if a heart is continued at trick two, declarer will discard a club on the fourth diamond and wrap up his game. Here is another example of attitude that occurs frequently but is often overlooked: Hand#3 KQ64 K82 J93 A93 A8 QJ105 1074 KJ74 98 973 Q852 10762 J10753 2

A64 AK6 Q8 North-South reached the contract of 4 and West leads the queen of hearts. Looking at the problem from East s point of view, he does NOT want West to shift to another suit. To send this message he follows with the seven of hearts to trick one. If he played the three, when West regained the lead he might shift to one of the other suits and allow declarer to succeed. East will follow to the second heart with the nine so his partner will not read him for a doubleton. Point to remember: THE CARD YOU PLAY TO PARTNER S LEAD DOESN T NECESSARILY PROMISE OR DENY A CERTAIN HOLDING IN THAT SUIT; RATHER IT SHOWS ATTITUDE ON WHETHER IT SHOULD BE CONTINUED. TO PLAY A LOW CARD STRONGLY SUGGESTS YOU CAN STAND A SHIFT TO ANOTHER SUIT. Here s an opportunity to show attitude in a side suit: Hand#4 K76 AQ10 1075 K763 J1098 76 AQJ J942 5432 KJ984 86 108 AQ 532 K9432 AQ5 West leads the jack of spades against South s 3NT. East follows with the deuce to show no interest in the suit. Declarer will attack diamonds or clubs and on the third round of either suit, East should discard the nine of hearts. This high spot asks West to shift to a heart when given the opportunity. It s also important to point out that a low heart would deny interest in that suit. COUNT 3

It also helps to be able to tell partner how many cards you hold in a suit. The standard way to show count is to high-low with an even number and play lowhigh with an odd number. Here are some rules when giving count: - When possible play your second highest card to show an even number (9643). - When following to partner s opening lead of an ace (from ace-king), to encourage, play high from a doubleton up through the jack. When holding QX, play small; the play of the queen promises the jack or a singleton. (An exception will be discussed in the section on suit-preference.) - Don t give count when it will help declarer more than your partner. - A high-low in the trump suit shows an odd number. - Against a slam, always give count when partner s opening lead is an ace or king. - Against a suit contract, when partner leads the ace (from ace-king) and dummy hits with QXX or JXXX, many players give count. This will help partner decide if the king will cash. This should be discussed with your partner(s). Here is a situation where count is mandatory. Hand#5 QJ1093 J102 104 962 875 96 632 KQ1073 42 8754 QJ97 A85 AK6 AKQ3 AK85 J4 4

South declares 3NT and West leads the queen of spades. Declarer wins and leads a club toward dummy. It is imperative for West to play the deuce on this trick. East will read this for an odd number and win the second round of clubs to hold South to eight tricks. Another form of count is given with the opening lead. Lacking a sequence of honors, it is customary to lead fourth best against many contracts. Here s an example: Hand#6 KJ5 965 852 KQ107 94 Q10742 AJ104 96 A2 KJ8 Q974 8532 Q108763 A3 K5 AJ4 North-South are in 4 and West with no obvious lead, finally settles on the four of hearts. Declarer wins the ace and leads a spade to the king and ace. Next, East cashes the jack of hearts noting that West followed with the deuce. This showed that West started with five hearts so declarer has none left. East now shifts to a diamond and the contract is defeated. Again, this may seem very simple but if East leads a third heart, declarer will ruff, draw trumps, and discard a diamond on dummy s fourth club. Here are two other examples of giving count after winning the lead. In each case, West leads his fourth best spade to East s ace. 954 954 Q10763 A2 Q1073 A62 KJ8 KJ8 5

East returns the deuce to show two or four. In the second example, East returns the six to show three (or two). Those were examples of showing present count. This is a way of showing count after you have made an attitude signal, opening lead, or followed to a trick. It is important to show present count during the play of the hand. For example, holding K8654 and playing the king after partner led the suit, your first discard in the suit will be the six. One of the rules is to not give declarer too much information. There are many times where you most certainly don t want declarer to know your distribution in a suit and your partner won t care if you lie. Take a look at this suit: AQ103 J862 97 K54 South plays the ace, king and a low spade toward dummy and I m sure you can see that giving count in this situation isn t going to help you at all but declarer may like it. Of course, if declarer knows you are a less than truthful person, you should vary your play. SUIT PREFERENCE Attitude and count are usually straightforward but now we get into an area that is not so clear. For example, some partnerships use suit-preference when dummy hits with a singleton in the suit led. However, it is possible the best defense is a continuation of that suit forcing dummy to ruff. In this case, a high card should ask for the suit to be continued. Here are some guiding principles1: -WHEN PARTNER CANNOT POSSIBLY BE INTERESTED IN YOUR COUNT OR ATTITUDE, FOLLOW SUIT WITH EITHER A LOW CARD OR A HIGH CARD TO INDICATE WHICH SUIT YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR PARTNER TO PLAY. 1 Mark Horton, Better Signaling Now, Chess & Bridge Limited, 2002, pp 57-62. 6

-A DEFENDER CAN GIVE A SUIT-PREFERENCE SIGNAL IN A SUIT HE HAS LED WHEN THE DEFENSE IS CASHING TRICKS IN THAT SUIT AND COUNT IS NOT IMPORTANT. -WHEN YOUR LENGTH IN A SUIT IS KNOWN OR CAN BE OF NO INTEREST TO PARTNER, IT IS SENSIBLE TO USE YOUR CARDS TO GIVE A SUIT- PREFERENCE SIGNAL. Now let s look at some examples: Hand#7 J53 84 AQJ84 J43 A6 Q10753 953 1065 Q9742 KJ9 K2 987 K108 A62 1076 AKQ2 The contract is 3NT and West leads the five of hearts. Declarer ducks the king and jack and then wins the ace. On the third round of hearts, West should follow with the queen. This shows an entry in the higher suit. Without this information after gaining the lead with the king of diamonds, East would have to guess whether to lead a spade or a club. Hand#8 Dlr W Vul N/S AK43 KJ109 5 KJ109 West North East South 2 DBL 5 5 Pass Pass Pass 7 9 7

875 AK10863 743 AQ3 Q9742 10865 QJ108652 642 J AQ After this spirited auction, West leads a high diamond. It s clear to East that a heart shift is imperative, so he plays the queen of diamonds (unusually high card) to ask West to shift to a heart. Switch East s and South s round suit holdings and he would follow with the deuce of diamonds. As you can see, without the heart shift at trick two, declarer will draw trumps and discard two losing hearts on the clubs. Hand#9 10862 KJ10 105 KJ103 A 875 8643 76542 7 AQ93 AKQ972 Q8 West North East South Pass Pass Pass 1 4 KQJ9543 642 J A9 West obediently leads his partner s suit and East s normal play is the queen denying the jack. But here he wants to send his partner a signal so he wins with the ace. This play usually denies the king so when he continues with the king at trick two, West understands that his partner has a preference for hearts, the higher side suit. (Think: top down=higher suit; bottom up=lower suit.) After winning the spade ace, West leads a heart through dummy and the contract is defeated. If East-West were not using suit-preference signals and East had 8

routinely played the queen of diamonds at trick one followed by another honor, poor West would have had to guess which suit to lead when he regained the lead. Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs) Hand#10 Dlr S J1062 A43 Q75 872 93 87 AK1064 KJ53 84 KQ102 J943 1096 West North East South 1 2 2 3 3 Pass Pass Pass AKQ75 J965 8 AQ4 After the lead of an ace (from ace-king), when dummy hits with either QXX or JXXX it is customary for East to show count. As stated earlier, this helps West decide if his king is going to cash. Here East drops the jack (an unnecessary high card) to show a preference for a heart shift. Since the auction tells West this can t be a doubleton, he shifts to a heart at trick two. You can see declarer will be defeated in this contract unless West panics and shifts to a club. You will also note that East cannot make a suit-preference play for clubs because it would be read as count. The UNUSUAL high card (the jack) changes this from count to suit-preference. SUMMARY In this session I have demonstrated the standard methods of sending three different types of messages. As is usually the case, there are variations on these methods. I mentioned earlier that some players reverse the manner in which they give information; this is known as UPSIDE-DOWN signaling and is quite 9

popular. There is also ODD-EVEN carding and LAVINTHAL carding. Some partnerships use a SMITH ECHO to indicate if they liked the opening lead and others high-low in the trump suit to show suit-preference rather than count. If nothing else, I want to you leave this lesson with the realization that you must use some form of carding if you want to be a good defender. I m sure that has been a lot for some of you to absorb so please feel free to ask questions. And please remember, you re on defense approximately half of the time, so you must work at it. 10