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Suit Preference
Of the three basic signals - attitude, count, suit preference - the last is the least common, but none the less important. The most common application occurs when we are giving Partner a ruff and wish to tell him what suit to lead back after gaining that ruff. A high card says "Lead back the higher-ranking suit", conversely for a low card. If we have no preference and have enough cards in the suit to convey a clear signal we can also return a middling card.
Related Play Problems Play Problem 97
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
Against 3NT, N-S can grab five black tricks but they probably won’t. North will no doubt start out with a Club: - If North leads her 4th-best Club then Declarer has 9 tricks and runs for home - If North leads the ♣K then South has no need to give attitude with that holding in Dummy … and there’s little need for count, either. So, if N-S are on the same signaling page then South can play the Seven as a suit preference signal. That might induce North to shift to the ♠Q. Nice defense if you found it, but we predict that most Declarer’s will make 9 or 10 tricks.
Being opposite a passed hand, South makes a reasonable Pass over 4♠ and that’s where the matter rests. That will be down one provided that South does not find the disastrous opening lead of a Diamond.
Some bold Souths might take a shot at 5♦ and they may live to tell the tale. West will probably lead the ♠Q, won by Dummy’s Ace, Declarer pitching a Heart. [Question: Why not pitch a Club? Declarer’s rationale was that finding the ♣Q with West (based on the auction) was more likely than Hearts breaking 3-3] Now the ♦J is finessed, losing to West’s Ace. The moment of truth has arrived! Will West find the Club shift to set the contract? Maybe, maybe not!
The "Surely" Trap - When defending against 5-level (and 6-level) contracts it is customary to give count rather than attitude on opening lead. But maybe that agreement can be thrown out of the window when East’s count is already known. Here, the vulnerable 4♠ opening, missing ♠AQ, surely means that East has 8 Spades. Then again, one man’s “surely” is another man’s “perhaps” or “probably” or “not in a million years”. - Nonetheless, let’s assume that, at Trick 1, East believes the auction has freed him of his “give count” shackles. What Spade should he play which will persuade Partner to give him a Club ruff.? As attitude is known, and as count is presumed, surely (there’s that word again) this is a suit preference situation. That being the case, East would play the King if he wanted a Heart shift, play something in the middle if he had no preference, and play the Three if he wanted a Club shift.
As South, what is your opening lead against 4♠? You can be fairly certain that North has less than two Hearts, and that West has 4 or 5. It’s possible that both North and East have singletons, but nonetheless we’d lead a Heart hoping to give Partner a ruff. Which Heart? The Two! If Partner can ruff the opening lead, we hope that she will read our Two as a suit preference signal for Club. By the same token, we’d lead the Eight if we wanted Partner to return a Diamond. As it happens, Partner does not ruff the opening Heart lead, but you get a second chance, grabbing the ♠A on the first round and giving Partner a Heart ruff. 10 tricks only with this defense, but 11 with any other opening lead.
Put yourself in the North seat. Partner leads a high Diamond and you alertly notice that Dummy has a singleton in Diamonds. That singleton creates a suit preference situation, giving you these options: - Play a low Diamond “for Clubs” - Play a high Diamond “for Hearts” (the high and the low relate to the other two side-suits, trumps are not one of the signaling choices) - Play a middling Diamond “for neither”
You’ll notice that we’ve thrown some quotation marks in there, what’s that all about? The point is that our signaling duty here is not to direct the defense so much as it is to help Partner … there is a difference! As North, how do you best signal at Trick 1 in order to help out Partner? We would suggest the following: - Play a low Diamond if you have something in Clubs … this does not mean “shift to a Club”, it is merely intended to reassure Partner that Declarer’s Heart losers are not disappearing on Clubs. - Play a high Diamond to suggest a Heart shift … that could be made with the Ace or the Queen, the idea being to put Declarer to an early guess. - Play a middling Diamond for none of the above.
The second set of bullet points may not look so different from the first set, but in fact they are. On the opening lead of a high Diamond, North will play the middling Seven. That might lead South to deduce that, as South doesn’t seem to have anything in Hearts or Clubs, she might have the ♠A. So South will shift to her singleton Club, and a Club ruff will provide the setting trick!
Had South miscounted her points when she bid 4♠? Not at all, she reckoned that E-W could probably make 4♥ and that 4♠ would be a good save. That being the case she bid 4♠ immediately, putting West to the guess. Who can blame West for guessing wrong with that hand? Mind you, N-S had better be on top defensive form if they are to beat 5♥. North leads the Q♠ which holds the trick. North will know from the bidding that South has the missing Spades and must find the right shift at Trick Two. Suit preference will come to the rescue. South can choose between the 9♠ and 8♠ at Trick One, and, as South’s attitude to the Spades is known (she must have the Ace), and, as her count is also known from the bidding, this can be a suit preference situation … the higher Spade for a Diamond, and the lower Spade for a Club. If N-S are on the same advanced (some would say obscure) wavelength, then South plays the 8♠ and North shifts to a Club at Trick Two, ensuring a third defensive trick.
Against 3♣, North might well start with a low trump, trying not to blow a trick on the opening lead. Declarer wins that and leads a low Spade won by North’s Ace, on which South plays the, er, yes, what does South play here? The general rule, when Declarer leads a suit, is for the defense to give a count signal, and another general rule is to make that count signal as clear as possible. The Five would be the start of a high-low here (let’s assume “right-side up” carding), and that might be enough to indicate that we have an even number. But, surely we can afford a higher card than that, and we certainly should, we like our signals to be unambiguous. Does that mean that the Jack should be played? Perhaps not. The Nine would be high enough to convey the count message, we’d reserve the Jack for suit preference. Such a violent signal should be saying “Lead a Heart!”. Is this what we want to tell Partner? Probably, she may need to decide whether to shift to a Heart or a Diamond, and with our ♥KT surrounding Dummy’s Queen we’d like to point Partner in the direction of a Heart shift. So, South plays the J♠, and, if North is on the same wavelength, she’ll shift to a Heart. It’s the only play which deprives Declarer of an overtrick!
Surely, most tables will surely play in 2♠ and the defense is not difficult to predict: Heart to the King, then the A♥ is cashed, then a low Heart (suit preference for Clubs) ruffed by South. At this point, South will know that North has the A♣ (and surely not the A♦), and even though she knows she’ll be unable to overruff Declarer she might as well lead a Club anyway, if nothing else it will make Partner feel good that someone was actually paying attention to her signals.
Suit Preference Note Actually, North had another way to give suit preference on this hand. On the opening lead, North could have won the first trick with the Ace, and then played the King. As this is playing the honors out of order, the play of the high one first indicates interest in the high suit (Diamonds). But playing the lower K♥ first does not necessarily indicate interest in the lower suit, that K♥ is simply the normal play and not necessarily suit preference.
Check out this defense to 2♠: Club to the Ace Low Club back, and ruffed by North. That low Club was suit preference, saying “Lead back a Diamond, not a Heart”. Back to the play: North cashes the ♦K Then a low Diamond to South’s Ace Another Club is led North did well to cash the ♦K before crossing to Partner’s ♦A. Now, Declarer has no useful pitch, so he ruffs with the Jack. When that wins, he plays A♠ and ducks a Spade to South’s Ace. Now Declarer has a trump entry to the board and can pitch both his Heart losers on the minor suit winners. That’s 8 tricks for Declarer.
Against 3♠, North leads her singleton Diamond, giving South the chance to defeat the contract with some spiffing defense. She wins the trick with the Ten, and can tell that, as North led the Two, it is Declarer and not North who has the remaining Diamond. So, South returns the ♦4 at Trick 2, forcing North to ruff! North will wonder why South made her ruff instead of simply cashing a second Diamond, and the inescapable conclusion will be that South wants a Club ruff. So back comes the ♣Q (suit preference) which is duly ruffed, then a Heart to North’s Ace and a second Club ruff. Nicely done for down one!
In a shameless attempt to get N-S playing 4♥ we had to resort to a gadget bid by West and an overbid by North. - West’s 3♦: This was a so-called “Constructive Raise in Competition”, showing around 6-9 points and a 4-card Spade raise. - North’s 3♥: This was the aforementioned overbid. Having said that, the North hand does have some redeeming qualities. Well, one redeeming quality, anyway, namely those three small Spades. What’s so good about that? E-W are marked with at least 9 Spades and three small opposite shortness is a good holding, one with no wastage. - South’s 4♥: This could be a save against 3♠ or a contract which makes, South doesn’t know which (and it could also be neither, with 3♠ and 4♥ both going down).
Against 4♥, East starts out by cashing a Spade, but what next? In this situation (where Dummy has a singleton in the led suit), standard procedure is for West’s card to the first trick to be suit preference. That being so, West plays his lowest Spade to show values in Clubs. If East does indeed shift to a (low) Club then West inserts the Jack and Declarer’s Queen wins the trick. Now the ♥A and ♥K are cashed and the ♦Q is led. When the ♦K is onside, the defense scores just a Spade, a trump and a Club. Making 10 tricks!
Even though the N-S bidding passes muster, the resulting 4♠ contract is not a thing of beauty! However, it does have chances, and, as the cards lie, E-W must defend accurately to beat this one. West will lead the K♦ and East will contribute the Jack, which denies the Queen, and, with a singleton in Dummy, should be taken as Suit Preference for the higher suit ... basically, East is trying to tell West that it is safe to shift to a Heart. This shift is the winning defense, it's necessary to knock out those Dummy entries in order to kill the suit. Declarer will win the Ace (he may duck the first round of the suit), and play on trumps ... when West gets in he must attack Dummy's other entry, which is the 4th trump, and the way to do that is to lead a Diamond, forcing Dummy to ruff. Now, Dummy's trump entry has been used up before the Clubs can be set up and enjoyed.
It should be 500 but that requires good defense by West. No doubt West will start out with a red Ace, here’s what might happen: - If West guesses to start out with the A♦, he’ll see the need to stop the Diamond ruff and has two ways to get the treasured 500. He can underlead the A♥ to Partner’s King for a Spade lead through Declarer … or he can play the J♠, praying that Partner has the Nine and that he will get his two Spades anyway. Can Partner help? Maybe, maybe not. With a singleton on the board in the led suit, East is entitled to give suit preference and a high Diamond would show something in Hearts. Alas, the play of the J♦ would also blow a trick in the suit, so East does best to play the Six and hope that Partner can figure it out. - If West starts with the A♥, he has little option but to shift to the J♠ if he wants to collect 500.
It turns out to be a good game unless West finds the opening lead of a Spade. Underleading a King against a suit contract is a common enough practice but not without some risk. And the longer the suit is, the greater the risk. Leading from Kxxxxx is dangerous indeed, but it’s the winner here, allowing the defense to score 4 tricks with the aid of two Spade ruffs. We were in two minds ourselves between an opening Spade or Diamond lead, so we asked Dr Goodlead for his opinion. He was already two for two on this session, we wondered if he could manage the trifecta. Indeed he did, he reckoned the chances of a Spade ruff to be quite high. He even went so far as to lead the Spade Two, intending that as a suit preference signal for Clubs. The Doctor goes three for three!
Against 3♠, East leads his singleton Club, and West plays the King, then the Ace, and gives Partner a ruff. Or, does he play Ace, then King? Or does it even matter? Yes, it matters! The standard play in this third-seat situation is to play the King then the Ace, and making that standard play carries no particular message, it’s business as usual. But, when third seat plays abnormally, playing the high card first, then this has suit preference connotations. The message is “I have a high card in Hearts”, the higher ranking suit (eliminating Spades which are trumps, and Clubs which is the suit being played). And the definition of a high Heart card? In this situation, surely the Ace or the King.
Armed with this knowledge, East should feel confident underleading his A♥ to Partner’s King, getting the second ruff and setting 3♠ one trick. Pretty neat stuff, eh? Perhaps, and we wish that we could report that this is the only way to beat the contract. But it’s not, the defense will still prevail if East cashes the A♥ and continues Hearts. The defense does not get its second ruff in this case, but even so there is no way for Declarer to scrape up 9 tricks and it’s down one anyway. So, only style points are being awarded for that nifty suit preference signaling and the subsequent underlead.
South leads the A♥ and North plays the Five. What does this mean? Usually, when defending a suit contract, if Dummy goes down with a singleton in the suit of the opening lead, that card is intended as suit preference. So, North plays the Heart Five at Trick One, it’s the best that she can do in the circumstances. It’s a high card and is attempting to convey the message “I have something in Diamonds, the higher ranking suit”. Considering the threatening Diamonds in Dummy, that would probably have to be KJ or better. If South is paying attention and shifts to a Diamond at Trick Two, the defense collects its three tricks. If South fails to switch to Diamonds at Trick Two, Declarer can eventually throw in North with the third round of trumps, end-playing her in Diamonds.
How about 4♦? The only way for N-S to beat this contract will be for South to get a Spade ruff. Will this happen? Let’s say that North starts out with the K♥, as would just about everybody. Now we have a familiar situation, when Dummy goes down with a singleton in the led suit. This is generally played as a suit preference situation. Should South play her highest spot card, the mighty Six, to indicate the desire for a Spade shift? No, of course not! The signal might not be that clear, and if North misreads it she may decide that the winning defense is to go passive. No worries! South can see the situation clearly enough and she should take charge. So, she overtakes the first trick, cashes the A♠, then a Spade to North’s King, and a ruff. Nicely done, Ms South! But, if she had feebly signaled on the first trick with the Heart Six, and if North had gone wrong at Trick Two, then she would have had nobody to blame but herself!
South’s 3♠ was perhaps a bit of a stretch, but the 5th Spade looked useful, and there was no substantial wastage opposite Partner’s marked Heart shortness. In other words, South’s modest values were all working.
Against 4♠, let’s say that West lays down the A♥. Standard practice in this situation, when there is a singleton in Dummy, East will give suit preference. If that is part of the E-W repertoire, then East plays the Two, and West dutifully shifts to a Club. Then West hops up with the A♠ on the first round and gives East his ruff. Nicely done, that is the only defense that will hold Declarer to 10 tricks.
3♠ is like a reasonable enough contract but it’s likely to be down one if East starts out with a Heart. When West wins the Ace, Declarer will play the Queen, trying to create the illusion that East has led from JT9. But West probably won’t be fooled, and will shoot back the Club Four, a clear suit preference signal that West wants a Club back after East ruffs (not that there could be any doubt looking at Dummy). So, the defense scores two ruffs and it’s down one.
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