In Bridge, signaling for better defense is almost universally accepted as very necessary. But at the same time the signal also alerts the opposing side that is the declarer, to judge the distribution and place the key cards with each defender more accurately on the bass of signals given by the defenders. Sometimes the defenders restrain from signaling correctly for fear of exposing their card holding before the declarer. At times the more wily defenders give the wrong signals to mislead the declarer taking the risk of course of misleading the partner at the same time.
Modern techniques of Bridge signaling have added advantages for the defenders like odd even, upside down, conventional codes and negative inferential signals. But howsoever one may view this issue of signaling, it is still a vital weapon in Bridge defense. Many experts use it in a more subtle and intelligent manner so as to have a more win-lose situation rather than a lose-win situation, ie intercepting every signal without allowing the declarer the advantage of intercepting the defenders signal.
Let us learn by example and to see both sides of the coin:
Say east west holds the following cards:
The bidding is short:
Say north leads the 4S to south's JS. Can you proceed to make 3NT as west? You have 8 top tricks and if diamonds split or KH is rightly placed you can succeed in making 3NT knowing north's 4S to be from a 4 carder giving then the most 3 spades and the ace of hearts, provided the diamonds are not breaking favorably. But the play of the heart should not come too late.
For once the diamond honours are played, the boats are burnt. Now the defender with the AH, can always cash in on the extra diamond trick to down the contract.
Let's see what happens when you hold off the AS, the QS follows, then the 8S. Now a diamond break is a 35% odd against a 50-50 chance of finding the KH favorably placed.
That's a tricky situation. Can clever signaling help? Yes, at least a try can be made. How? After taking the AS, lead the KD from hand.
Herein both defenders will signal automatically to show their distribution, high-low for even, and vice versa.
So early no defender will venture to give the wrong signal that you can be in a better position to combine your chances of knowing whether diamonds would split favorably before embarking on the last hope of finding the KH right.
Now let's see the other side of the coin in the art of
signaling.
We have the following illustration wherein NS are in 6S and west leads the KD.
The second round of trumps reveals the bad break, so declarer needs to get rid of his diamond loser before east gets the lead. All would have been well had east 3 hearts but as you can see that is not so.
The crunch of the matter now rests on finding a way to dissuade east from ruffing the third heart. Can you find a way to do that? Yes, by the time honored ruse to lead the king of hearts low to the ace in the dummy. Cashing the AH and then leading the JH from dummy, making it look as if you are taking a ruffing finesse of the QH, showing a singleton heart holding to east deceptively. If east falls for the bait, he will not waste his winning trump on a loser.
But then here comes the finer techniques of signaling that can prevent east from falling into the deception laid by the declarer? How?
If west signals high low in hearts, giving declarer the deception of holding of 3 cards in hearts marking the QH holding with him a certainty since with KXX, he would have finessed one way or the other in the 2 way finessing position.
But suppose west is afraid that if he signals High-low, declarer without the heart queen can then go for dropping partner's doubleton queen holding if it existed.
Experts wriggle out of this situation invariably by telling partner they have 4 hearts in such a situation and at the same time telling declarer deceptively that they have 3. How? To the KH, west follows with the 3H, and on the next 4H led by declarer to the JH in dummy, West follows with the 6H.
Thus, to the declarer he shows an odd distribution-3 hearts, but the partner will get the message loud and clear that since the 2H is missing, that card can only be with west making us learn that signaling in Bridge has many facets.
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West East
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A 75 9 3 2
10 6 4 K 8 5
A K 3 Q 7 6 4
A Q J 4 K 8 3
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W E
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1C 1D
2NT 3NT
All Pass
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.
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North West East South
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Q 9 7 2 6 J 10 8 3 A K 5 4
A J 10 9 7 6 3 2 8 5 K Q 4
A 5 K Q 10 3 9 7 6 4 2 J 8
K J 9 8 7 6 5 10 4 A Q 3 2
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