[Cyberyeti]

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Partner leads a club, he discards on the second one, assuming he has lots of diamonds and hearts, what do the following mean

High diamond
Low diamond
High heart
Low heart

he needs to be able to signal either ace or a possible trump promotion

Your normal agreed method is McKenney if it matters

[mikeh]

Cyberyeti, on 2023-November-03, 16:37, said:

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Partner leads a club, he discards on the second one, assuming he has lots of diamonds and hearts, what do the following mean

High diamond
Low diamond
High heart
Low heart

he needs to be able to signal either ace or a possible trump promotion

Your normal agreed method is McKenney if it matters

You have the directions wrong

[mikeh]

Tough hand

Partner is pretty much marked to be 1561. Unfortunately he can’t know that declarer has 3 pitches coming, even after I make partner ruff a club.

So with the diamond ace, and the heart king, he won’t worry that his diamond trick will vanish…if declarer has Axxx AQ Qxx QJ10x for example, he can’t make. Even A10x AQ Qxx QJ10xx.

Which is why he normally won’t try for a trump promotion. The odds of you holding Q10 are very low. Heck, he can reasonably infer, both from your 5H call and the 5S call that you have only one spade yourself. I do recognize that Qx might be enough….club ruff and overruff and play partner for QJ tight….but that’s anti-percentage not only on restricted choice but also on a dangerous lead.

How good is partner? A really good partner would ruff your club ace in order to cash a red ace….he definitely shouldn’t be playing for an uppercut if he has an ace, especially the heart ace. He may, as I said, think that his diamond ace can’t go anywhere but good players take no chances on these hands.

So with a very good partner who I think is playing well, I’m going to consider whether he has either ace.

If partner is that good then:

Encouraging red spot says he has that ace.

Discouraging red spot says he has neither ace, so I play for the uppercut.

High level defence…indeed high level (in terms of skill) bidding is akin to a high wire trapeze act…swinging in mid air, one lets go in order to do acrobatics…trusting partner to catch you before you fall.

If partner is not a good trapeze artist and thinks that discouraging one red suit implies he had the other ace…we’ll debrief later or never.

[Cyberyeti]

Mike, if McKenney is your normal method, do you think it applies here ? (so high heart would ask for a diamond and high diamond would ask for a heart)

You are right I got the directions wrong.

I got second prize, I misinterpreted partner's signal (low diamond), but he had a stiff ♠J so we still defeated the contract.

Strangely to beat 4♠ which the rest of the room were in, partner needs to lead A♥ from J, AQJxx, xxxxxx, x, then the uppercut generates your 4th trick.

5♥ is only -1 unless opps manage to play 3 rounds of diamonds overruffing declarer, if the 1N opener leads a club it makes.

[mikeh]

Cyberyeti, on 2023-November-04, 01:52, said:

Mike, if McKenney is your normal method, do you think it applies here ? (so high heart would ask for a diamond and high diamond would ask for a heart)

You are right I got the directions wrong.

I got second prize, I misinterpreted partner's signal (low diamond), but he had a stiff ♠J so we still defeated the contract.

Strangely to beat 4♠ which the rest of the room were in, partner needs to lead A♥ from J, AQJxx, xxxxxx, x, then the uppercut generates your 4th trick.

5♥ is only -1 unless opps manage to play 3 rounds of diamonds overruffing declarer, if the 1N opener leads a club it makes.

Over here your method is called Lavinthal.

It’s possible that it could be worked out: with the spade Jack and neither Ace, he pitches his smallest diamond, asking for a club continuation.

However, it’s a big mistake, if he has either ace, not to ruff the second club. Why?

Because he needs to be considering YOUR problems.

While it’s very unlikely that the uppercut scenario exists, sitting with your improbable spade holding you have to continue a club when you do hold it or it’s cousin Qx, unless he owns a red ace.

In theory he can dodge this bullet, with an ace, by pitching a red card that tells you to lead his ace suit. A high heart…diamond ace. A high diamond, heart ace. Any low red card….a club continuation.

So the partnership should survive a failure to ruff, except….. and n a very high level, the failure to ruff could mean that he thinks that you can try for the uppercut to create down 2. This makes sense only when his ace is in diamonds, because he can see that declarer can pitch dummy’s heart….after a third club, and the upper cut, declarer comes to the spade ace and cashes a club. Meanwhile, he can’t get three diamonds away unless he has 6 clubs to the QJ. So he can’t not ruff with the heart ace and with the diamond ace, signalling to continue clubs may look attractive.

So a signal for a club continuation doesn’t rule out the diamond ace but does rule out the heart ace.

But one attribute of an expert is that he goes out of his way to make his partner’s life easier. So…RUFF the second club with a red ace to cash and failing to do so suggests desperate measures. With the average player opposite, trust a high red card and guess after a low diamond.

[Cyberyeti]

I did say to him he should have ruffed the king of clubs