[inquiry]

These avoidable 7NT mistake threads with the single dummy problems don't seem to be generating interest, so I will go back to showing them double dummy, and discussing what went wrong looking at all four hands.

Here is a tougher one, that was misdefended by a pair that I know are at least high advanced and who use sound carding agreements: They play udca throughout, including udca discards. This hand shows how a pair, even using consistent signaling, can make a subtitle signaling error that wrecks the defense.

NS was aggessive, and reached a poor contract. West started with a reasonable ♦J.

When dummy plays low, West will know that east lacks the ♦King. There is some question as to who might hold the ♦Q. You need to know what your signaling agreement would be in this situation. If it is always attitude, you would signal positive attitude if you hold the queen, negative otherwise. If you would always signal count in this case, then it is give count. At trick one, I would give attitude by agreement, but I WOULD have preferred on this actual hand to give count..unfortunately, my partner would not know that I was giving count.

This pair was using UDCA signaling, so EAST clearly gave negative attitude to trick one, as if he was giving count, he would have played his lowest diamond (a question might be with ♦Qx, do you expect your partner to unblock the ♦Q?)

SOUTH cashes the spade ace, and ew continue to give udca count, giving each other accurate count in spades: west plays low on first spade, indicating even number of spades, and west played high, showing odd number. One could wonder if these signals are all necessary, because both east and west know that south has at least four spades, and may have five or more. BUT this is what they were doing. Here, some other meaning of signals in spades might have been useful.

On the spade queen, west had to play his remaining spade, so no meaning can be attached to that, other than helping interpret the meaning of the first spade played. East did have a choice, he could play his higher spade (the ten) to suggest value in a higher suit, or the 3 to suggest value in a lower suit. Of course he has to play one of those, so with nothing to show, the default would be play the lower, which he did. With five hearts, and knowing declarer holds at least the heart Ace, one might have considered showing something in hearts (we will return to this shortly). If partner doesn't have the heart queen, it will not matter, and if partner has a lot of hearts (3 or more to the queen), showing a heart value might help him with a discard. This goes a little along the lines of the "distributional (non)stopper" we talked about in part III. But playing a low spade here is not fatal to the defense.

West discards the diamond 4 on the third round of trumps, certainly this is a card he can afford, because even if east's diamond was a singleton, south would hold ♦Q95 so ♦T83 is enough to hold him to only his two remaining top diamonds. The choice of the ♦4 was to show original count (high-low) with odd, if he had six diamonds originally he would have discarded his lowest one (west could not afford to signal with the ♦8 in case south did have four diamonds originally). This original count signal is consistent with their carding agreement, and carding on other hands. EAST follows now with his last spade. This gives meaning to the ♠3, in that it shows partner did not make a positive s/p for hearts.

THE mistakes happen quickly on trick five, on both sides of the table, but I lay 100% of the blame on EAST (although west might should have worked it out), who was first defender to play to this trick. EAST discarded a low heart. This clearly was not "count" because they are playing udca. Following their udca discard principles, the low heart discard should show something in hearts -- but it is not "great" something because he didn't play the ♠T on the 2nd round of that suit. Thus this was intended to be a subtitle attitude signal in hearts showing something like an unsupported jack or queen. But whatever it was, it was a mistake. Let's think about the hand before East plays.

The diamond discard by west indicates five diamonds to start off with. WHY?

With 4♦ to the JT8x west could not afford a diamond discard at all. With six diamonds, south's two diamonds would be just the ♦KQ so WEST would have discarded his lowest diamond for count (which would have to be the ♦3). So EAST knows something that west doesn't know: That all of west's diamonds are useless. East could, and should, clarify that for WEST by discarding his remaining diamond. When that diamond hits the table, WEST will know that east doesn't have the ♦Q (WITH ♦Qxx east would hae encouraged at trick one), and west's play to trick five would be easy, and painless diamond discard.

EAST however threw the heart, so let's turn to WEST. He holds ♥Qxx ♦T8x ♣Txx. FOR him the need to hold diamonds is amplified by partner's non-diamond discard. If the heart discard was something in hearts in the way of a mild partial stopper, he could discard a heart, and he probably should. But, the hand is soooooo much easier for west if east had discarded a diamond.

What west discarded the ♣6. The suit choice almost forced on him. The six was udca: "i don't have value in clubs" (high club, using udca discards). As noted earlier west could with a little though have realized he could afford a heart discard based upon his heart signals, but -- and this is key -- east could have made it 100% clear with a diamond discard instead of a small heart.

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[BunnyGo]

Very interesting how one partner can have the information to know something 100%, and know that partner doesn't. It's interesting to see that when you can figure this out, your discards should strive to bring partner in on the information.

FWIW, I very much liked the single dummy hands. They were interesting to think about. But I've found this whole series interesting.

[inquiry]

This is an interesting hand worthy of discussion. There are numerous problems with different signaling methods. West would like to show spade values but standard and udca discards can't show spade value. A problem exist for roman (odd/even) discards as well, because west lacks a high even card to signal with (playing a revolving kind of o/e discard where low diamond show a club stop and low club shows spade, will not help as you can't afford a low even club). Interestingly, east on this hand signaled very well, and west let him down. This pair seems to have been using standard carding (and discarding).

This type of hand can be a signaling nightmare for many partnerships, in a large part because south's distribution is a total unknown. The heart lead worked out safely and we can assume south gave count at trick one. No signal whatsoever can be attributed the 2nd round of hearts as both partners played the only card they could legally.

Here west discarded a careful 3-2 of diamonds on hearts in that order, presumably showing mild diamond value (with ♦K he would have gone more dramatic, something like 7-2 or T-2). This is of course assuming 2nd diamond did not carry s/p implications.
There should also be an implied diamond count of at least 5♦ for this as well, as you could not afford two diamonds otherwise.

EAST discarded clubs up the line 4-8 and then jack, that should do it. The 4 was I don't like clubs. Perhaps to be followed by J (count) then 8, BUT once he didn't like clubs, could he have ♣QJ84? EAST made it clear with this carding that he held three clubs. So West has to hold tight to the clubs. NOTE that if east discards one discouraging club, then an encouraging diamond, that might work as well, but his play made it clear. I might suggest (playing standard discards), low club, high diamond, club jack -- but west should have worked it out . Part of the problem, and this is a reoccuring theme, is west signaled he has diamonds, and then was unwilling to realize that despite his signal he can't afford to keep diamonds.

East could also have told a bold face lie, and signaled dramatically with a diamond, knowing after partner's diamond signal that west started with five diamonds to Q and declarer thus had ♦AK. A strong diamond signal would also have helped north discard diamonds.

The hand is a little more complicated with lavinthal and roman discards. USING either of these methods, show how you would discard as east and west to help west know to abandon his good looking diamonds to keep his not so good looking clubs.

I will mention one more defense that is not available to me because it was discussed in an earlier thread. If you play first discard of an honor as I am abandoning this suit, clearly south could pitch the club J at trick three (only time that COULD even theoretically cost is if partner has QX doubleton in clubs, but in that case, declarer has 5♥, 7♣ and two side aces for 14 top tricks). This same logic is what east probably applied when he abandoned clubs at trick three just staring discardind them up the line.

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[inquiry]

ONE LAST ONE FOR THIS THREAD, back to single dummy for this one.

The first two tricks exhaust everyone but dummy of spades. Without discussing how you will signal anything, and without adding any significance to east's card to trick 3 (not shown), sitting west what feature(s) of your hand do you want to emphasize first to your partner.

Then, after you figure out what you want to place emphasis on, what would your first three discards be if:

1. You are playing standard discards
2. You are playing udca discards
3. You are playing lavinthal discards
4. You are playing roman discards
5. You are playing alternative signaling (not much different here from lavinthal, except for 2nd discard)
6. You are playing some method not listed here -- explain.

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[Flameous]

I'm bit puzzled, what was south's 6♥?
South must hold ace and other honor in hearts in addition to ♣A so he has 12 tops possibly with heart finesse.
Declarer has two possibilities for 13th, either double squeeze as diamonds as the pivot suit, this should be easy to see for both of us. So if partner holds diamond stopper, he should keep it and I'm guarding the suits after the declarer.
But the situation is different if partner holds just Qx of diamonds. Then we can't just go around throwing our diamonds away.
My approach would be, independent of the methods to first discard ♣Q, this should wake partner up. Then I'll follow with 5 or 7 of diamonds, which ever is positive attitude so partner knows to discard ♦Q from doubleton.

This requires a lot from partner but so does squeeze defense in general.

I must also say that I have liked these problems/analyses. Very insightful and also makes you think about other kinds of signaling methods.

[inquiry]

Flameous, on 2012-February-18, 17:12, said:

I'm bit puzzled, what was south's 6♥?

Actually if you look, it was north that bid 6♥ (he might should just bid the grand slam if his partner is asking kings and he has seven solid spades. My guess is 4nt and 5nt were both standard blackwood, and north's 5♥ and 6♥ showed two aces and then two kings, because, we can see that is what he holds.

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South must hold ace and other honor in hearts in addition to ♣A so he has 12 tops possibly with heart finesse.

Right you are. If we were at the table, we could find out if 2♥ promised, for example, two of the top three honors, but your trick count is accurate. Let me spell this out for others: If south has five hearts plus to the AKQ and the expected club ace, he has 7s, 3h, 1c, and 2d for 13 absolutely top trick. This is also true if he has heart AQ and club AK, that is 7S, 2H, 2D, and 2C, again 13 top tricks. Finally if declarer has the ♦Q, that gives him 7S+3d+1c+1h, and we are back to partner needing ♥kq. I think we are the same page with south having two top heart honors, club ace, and no diamond queen or club king.

So you as WEST, as you noted, you need your partner to have something like ♥Q, ♦Q, ♣K.

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Declarer has two possibilities for 13th, either double squeeze as diamonds as the pivot suit, this should be easy to see for both of us. So if partner holds diamond stopper, he should keep it and I'm guarding the suits after the declarer. But the situation is different if partner holds just Qx of diamonds. Then we can't just go around throwing our diamonds away. My approach would be, independent of the methods to first discard ♣Q, this should wake partner up. Then I'll follow with 5 or 7 of diamonds, which ever is positive attitude so partner knows to discard ♦Q from doubleton.

This requires a lot from partner but so does squeeze defense in general.

I think most people (if they answer the questions) will find a succesful defense to this hand without worring too much about squeezes (that is by some form of luck, if they card logically). However, you are very right to worry about squeezes. Declarer has threats in three suits. At trick three, there is no successful squeeze available, but declearer has a diamond threat in north, and heart and club threats in south, and a possible club threat in north. There are hexangon squeezes where both east and west hold stopper in the same three threat suits, and they must eventually give up a trick. That is, as each one abandons the suit of their choice it results in a squeeze on their partner. Fortunately, while this hand has similarities to a hexagonal squeeze, there is a fatal flaw that allows the defense to prevail. Unfortunately, the defense has to be quite careful, and doing just what you said, worrying about the potential squeeze endings.

Let's check out what happens if partner abandons different suits.

IF he abandon's clubs completely (after we generously show him the queen-jack), then the dummy's 2nd club becomes a threat against us. This club threat could be in the "upper hand". If partner and we both hold onto clubs, then the club threat has to be in south's hand. Why is this? BECAUSE a basic tenet of a double squeeze, is the suit both partner's protect must have a winner and an entry to the threat in its own suit. So the club threat would have to be in south if your partner holds onto two clubs to the king. This is important, because if the dummys club is a threat against you alone, then you are caught in a compound squeeze. Lets take a look at how this squeeze would work. After partner throws the club king, if you give up a hearts, a double squeeze will destroy you, your partner has to keep hearts (upper suit to him), you have to keep clubs (dummy;s club is upper suit to you), so no one can keep three diamonds (dummy's club is thrown on last free heart winner then diamonds are run).

if on the other hand, you keep hearts, then north's club is still a threat to you, as is north's diamonds (also upper hand). You are not in a simple squeeze, because partner still has a diamond stopper, but he is squeezed in hearts that you gave up (hearts in upper hand to him) and diamonds. South runs his major suit winners and the club ace. If his club is not good that means you still have one, if his heart is not good, that means your partner still has one, so no one can keep three diamonds.

Life is equally difficult if partner abandons diamonds (or has only two diamonds to the queen to start with). NOW only you can stop diamonds, so you have to give up either your club or your heart stopper. It is trivial to show that if you stop diamond-hearts and your partner club-hearts, that a double squeeze would work. The club ace forces you to give up hearts, leaving your partner alone responsible for both clubs and hearts. The diamond AK then crushes him. IF you decide to keep clubs and throw hearts, then declarer takes his two heart winners, on the second of which forces you to give up your club stopper, once again allowing diamond AK to squeeze your partner in clubs and hearts.

If your partner throws hearts away, however, keeping his stoppers in both minors, there is nothing declarer can do (assuming of course you discard correctly). What is correctly for you? You have to give up your diamond stopper and keep club and heart stoppers.

What this combination of carding does (partner keeping minors, you keeping clubs and hearts) is establish a failing case for each squeeze possibility. The fact that you both have keep clubs is part of the key. WHY? The basic tenet that a suit both opponents guard must have a winner and entry to the thread in the same suit. This means the club threat has to be in south's hand. The heart threat is also in the south hand. This combination means simply, that no double squeeze will work as there is no upper threat against you (as long as your partner holds tight to the Kx of clubs). As for your parnter, he is squeezed in diamonds, but the club threat is uneffective due to your stopper. This failing case (you keeping guards behind south) should come to your mind if you are experienced in these type of squeeze endings.

Even if you can't work ouot all of these possible ending at the table, it should be clear to west, that he has to keep hearts, and he probably can't keep diamonds. A discarding skeme based upon this principle that would be very helpful would be a lavinthal discard of a high diamond (something like the 9) showing a heart value, followed by a further sequence of discards that prove you are not keeping anything in diamonds.

Partner should be able to work out after, say ♦9. ♦7 ♦J that you have abandoned diamonds and he will keep is qxx.... and that you are promising stuff in hearts, so he should begin letting his hearts go. The one thing you don't want to do is to encourage him to throw all his clubs away.. he actually needs to keep two...

So in a nutshell.. in the six card ending after all the spades are played, both partners need to keep two clubs. EAST needs to keep three diamonds, west needs to keep three hearts, their other card is each hand is totally optional.

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I must also say that I have liked these problems/analyses. Very insightful and also makes you think about other kinds of signaling methods.

Thanks, I think with hands like puzzle one and two in an earlier thread, and now the discussion of both partners having to be alert to the threat of potential compound squeeze on their partners, so how to find the defect in the pending hexagonal squeeze, that I have let this drift well oustide of intermediate level skill level. But this hand was more about visualization and signaling schemes than squeeze defense, per se.

[Flameous]

Seems I didn't really make throughout analysis, since it's always makable if declarer holds 4♦. So essentially we can just give partner negative attitude in diamonds and hope he can make better analysis than I did, meaning I must hold ♥J if we wish to beat it. Naturally better if we can do this with lavinthal indications.
I guess it might be still useful to make partner discard ♦Q from doubleton, not all declarers can manage the hand if I hold on to diamonds.