Signal while you follow suit

Napoleon Hill, who was a selfhelp author, wrote, “When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.” Today’s deal features an important defensive signal that is not employed by most players below the expert level. But it isn’t so difficult to benefit -- as long as you and your partner carefully watch each other’s cards. Cover the South and East hands in the diagram. Against four hearts, West leads the diamond ace: three, two, five. Next, he cashes the diamond king: six, eight, queen. What should West lead at trick three? After South opened with a weak two, North bid what he hoped his partner could make. After two top diamonds, West’s next play is critical. As the cards lie, if West switches to a spade, the contract goes down. But if he switches to a club or leads a third diamond, declarer gets home, his spade loser eventually being discarded on dummy’s fourth club. How does West know? By watching East’s cards. After signaling discouragement at trick one with the diamond two, East could play either the four or the eight on the second round. Here, East follows suit with the eight, his higher card being a suit-preference signal for spades, the higher of the two remaining side suits. Alternatively, if East had had the club king, he would have played the diamond four at trick two. One word of warning: These signals apply only if the defender’s cards cannot win a trick. Do not waste critical cards.