Making Effective Use of a Count Signal Larry Klimko 805-964-0334 lklimko@ispwest.com One aspect of this game that bedevils many players is knowing which one or several cards to save in the end on defense. Proper technique is needed in most cases. The following hand, Board 13, played at the Bridge Center on Thursday evening 1-5-06 (and rotated here 90 degrees for convenience) illustrates the point. Dealer: East J 7 Vul: both K 2 A 9 7 2 Q 7 6 5 3 Q 10 6 5 A 8 4 Q 9 J 8 3 Q 10 8 5 J 4 3 K 10 8 A 9 4 2 K 9 3 2 A 10 7 6 5 4 K 6 J The bidding at my table: West North East South ---- ----- ---- ----- P 1H P 1NT* P 2H P 3H All Pass -------- * Forcing The traveler: 3HE +4 170 4 3HE +3 140 1- 3@2HE +3 140 1- Opening lead: Spade five. East took his ace and returned the four. Declarer won the king and trumped a spade with the two. Then the heart king, a diamond to the king, the heart ace and out a heart. West did well to pitch the diamond eight on that last heart. Declarer had pitched a club and a diamond on the hearts. East cashed the club ace and continued with the club deuce. Declarer trumped leaving this position. --- --- A 9 Q 7 Q --- --- --- Q 10 J 4 K 9 4 9 10 7 6 --- He next led a diamond to the ace and trumped a club, dropping West's king. Next came the heart ten from declarer and West, down to two queens, had to pitch. He guessed to save the diamond queen, pitching the spade queen. Declarer produced the spade nine on the last trick, winning the trick and scoring an overtrick. A look at the traveller shows that that extra trick was worth all the match points for North-South. And of course, it gave East-West a bottom score for zero match points. East-West needed to be using a count technique that experienced players use routinely and successfully. When East won the spade ace at trick one, he should have returned the eight, his middle spade. The rule is this. When you play third hand high to partner's lead and return the suit (either immediately or later), if you started with three cards in the suit, return your original middle one; if you started with four or more cards in the suit, return your original fourth best. If East-West had been using this technique on this hand, West would have known at trick three that his partner had started with three spades. With that information he could count the spade suit and know that declarer had started with four. And declarer had played three of them on the first three tricks and had never played another spade. When declarer led his last trump at trick twelve, West would have known that declarer held a spade in the end and it would be an easy matter to save the spade queen. That would have saved a trick and given East-West an average score instead of a bottom.