Make signal impossible to read

James Whistler, an artist who spent a lot of his working life in England, said, “If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.”

If other bridge players, your opponents, are going to play perfectly, winning becomes near-impossible. But sometimes, even though your opponents play well, you may still force them to guess what to do.

In this deal, how does the play go in three spades after West leads his singleton heart?

Obviously, the bidding would not normally go this way. Some deal themes are too tough to compose. North might jump to four spades, based on the 10-card fit. East, over three spades, would surely make a takeout double, despite the unfavorable vulnerability. (Notice that five of either minor is down only one.) Finally, South would probably raise a three-spade limit raise to game.

East wins with the heart king and cashes the heart ace, seeing his partner discard. He continues with the heart five, his lower-remaining heart being a suit-preference signal for clubs. However, can West, after ruffing, read that card? Not if South is adroit. He will follow suit with the four, seven and eight (always playing his second-lowest, a good policy most of the time). Then West must wonder if East started with H A-K-6-5 and is asking for a club shift, or H A-K-5-3 and is signaling for diamonds.

For serious partnerships: West should get this right because if East has the diamond ace, he should win trick one with a suit-preference heart ace. When he continues with the king and six, West should know to shift to diamonds, the higher-ranking of the other two side suits.

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