Bridge B Jay & Steve Becker

There are times when standard defensive signals can be used to imply the opposite of their usual meaning. All it takes to decipher them is an alert partner and some straightforward logic. For example, take this deal where West led the ace of diamonds against four hearts.

East couldn't tell whether West had led from A-x, in which case he wanted the suit continued in order to give West a ruff, or whether West had led from A-x-x, in which case East would prefer a spade shift before dummy's queen of diamonds became established as a trick.

Quite correctly, though, East requested a continuation of the suit by playing the ten, on which South contributed the five.

West now donned his thinking cap. He realized that declarer had the jack of diamonds and that a diamond continuation could prove costly. He knew this because East would have signaled with the jack had he held the K-J-10, so East's play of the ten denied possession of the jack.

Accordingly, West switched to the spade jack, on which East played the two and South the four. Ordinarily, the meaning of the deuce would be to stop playing the suit, but here East felt he couldn't spare a higher card.

When declarer ducked, West continued with the three, knowing full well that East had started with precisely the K-Q-2 and South the A-6-4. East could not have K-Q-6-2, since he would have signaled with the six. Also West's fourthbest lead of the three simultaneously told East that declarer had exactly three spades.

The effect of all these informative signals was that South eventually lost two spades and two diamonds to go down one. Had West unthinkingly led a second diamond at trick two in obedience to East's ten play, or had he discontinued spades after East's play of the deuce, declarer would have made the contract.

(c)2020 King Features Syndicate Inc.