Will partner read your signal?

There are days on defense when you seem to be dealt all of the right cards, so that partner will have no trouble reading your signals. On other days, nothing goes right. Which is it today, the only Friday the 13th this year?

This deal was played in a Vanderbilt Knockout Teams match some years ago. At one table, North became the declarer in four spades. East led his singleton club, North won with his ace, drew trumps in three rounds and ran the clubs, discarding two heart losers. Now declarer played a diamond and conceded only three red-suit tricks.

At the other table, the bidding, which is given in the diagram, was very aggressive. Perhaps South should have doubled four hearts, but it takes careful defense to defeat that contract. Instead, he went for his own game.

West led the diamond ace. East was in an ideal position: he dropped the diamond nine. Whether his partner thought this was encouraging or a suit-preference signal for hearts, East held what was needed. West, holding a singleton diamond, read the signal as suit-preference and shifted to a low heart at trick two. East won with the heart queen, cashed the diamond king, gave his partner a diamond ruff and regained the lead with the heart king. Now a fourth diamond effected a trump promotion. If South had ruffed low, West would have overruffed; but when declarer ruffed with his ace, East had to score a trick with the spade jack. The result was down three, plus 500, and a gain of 14 international match points.