Signalling

This is a topic I have a certain fondness for, since it was the first topic the ACBL Bulletin printed of mine (in the July 1981 issue). I was not very upbeat on signalling there (though I did not explicitly say so) and will not be here for the same reason, which is: if I can skim off the top 15 or 20% of adept signallers, I would say people lose considerably more than they gain with their signals. How do they lose with their signals? Well, there are several ways, to wit:
First is signalling the wrong person. Please remember that declarer can see your signals as well as your partner. Here is the first hand given in my Bulletin series. It has to be one of the most outlandish of signals in the history of bridge:

A K Q 5
A Q 4
7 5 4
A J 3
6
K J 7 5 3 2
K J 6
Q 10 2
I opened two hearts and the man who wrote the book on weak two's raised me to six. The opening lead was a trump (thank heaven). How would you play the hand?
Myself, I thought that the club hook offered as good a chance as any. Indeed, I still think so if you go by simple odds. I might have first discarded two diamonds on the spades to avoid going down more than one if the hook's off. But I was headed for a defeated contract -- until East threw out the 9 of clubs on the second round of trump!
Well, that would be scanned awhile. Of course I had to wonder if this fellow was trying to blow smoke in my eyes. But deciding he was more likely to be naive than crafty, I abandoned the club hook for the diamonds, led a low one and played the jack. Yes, it was a mistake, which I realized some time later and which I'll get to in a minute, but things were looking far better for me. I drew the last trump from West, went to my spades, sluffing two clubs and led another diamond, and it was all over.

A K Q 5
A Q 4
7 5 4
A J 3
8 7 4 2 J 10 9 3
10 8 6 9
8 2 A Q 10 9 3
8 7 5 K 9 6 4
6
K J 7 5 3 2
K J 6
Q 10 2

The diamond play was a mistake, because all I needed was for the king to hold. If that happened, then I could sluff two diamonds on the spades and eventually take the club hook for what it might bring. By playing the jack, I doubled my chances of losing the trick to West.
Well, it was a non-costly mistake, and that's the way it goes. But in any event, I invite you to look at that signal. We were in slam. East can see the top hearts, all the top spades, the ace of clubs, and he's looking at A Q of diamonds in his own hand! Now, how on earth is his partner going to get the lead back after her opening lead of a trump? And just as important, how necessary is it that West know of his big club? Declarer has to work out 12 tricks here, far more than the defense has to work out two. If declarer by some stroke of genius was going to play East for the A Q of diamonds, there's nothing the defense can do about it. But you don't want to steer him in that direction by announcing the king of clubs!
This signal epitomizes several things wrong with many signals, which I'll re-emphasize briefly: (1) Declarer can watch your signals, also and may benefit more from them than your partner can. (2) Does your partner need to know what you've got? Declarer, going for the majority of the tricks, by and large has to make most of the key decisions. He will often -- not always, of course -- have to come to that suit where you have some good stuff. Of course, this is not a criticism of signals in toto. On those occasions where declarer seems to be set up if he can only get the lead, if you feel in your heart that your partner has to know something about your hand, by all means, that sounds like a time for signalling. Here I am only cautioning you against the presumption that it's necessarily good to tell your partner about your hand.

This came up in a couple of other hands. Such as this one:

A 7 5
A Q 8 7 4
A 7
A 8 3
9 8 6
K 3
Q 8 6
Q 10 7 5 2

This one I didn't jot down, and though I'm sure of the major suits, I'm not a hundred percent sure of the minors. What I do remember, though, is that at the end of the hand, I was the only one happy, as West barked at his partner -- though curiously, not for the play that enabled me to make the hand -- and my partner, after telling me I hadn't played the hand very well, appealed to my LHO (my partner in the first hand above) for confirmation. I was happy because I didn't think I was going to make the hand till we were better than half way through!
The bidding went a heart by North, a no trump by South, three no. West started with a spade attack, and I held up until the third round, East showing out. Well, if hearts break, that's eight tricks . . . But hearts not only didn't break: it was West who held the four, so I couldn't continue the suit to set up a 7th trick, anyway. However, I got something much better. On the third round of hearts, East threw out a high club! It may have been that same 9 of clubs. I don't know, but again figuring this player was more likely to be a knee-jerk signaller than crafty, I figured I could lead away from my ace of clubs, which turned out correct, and I made my contract.
You don't haff to signal. If West gets the lead, he's got 4 spade winners and a heart, which sets me right there, plus the trick he wins the lead with, since I'm not going to lead hearts and cannot lead spades! Now, if he gets six tricks, that leaves seven for me, which you can't stop (if West cashes his fourth heart), so the king of clubs is totally non-productive on this hand if West gets the lead, and knowledge of it cannot help West, though it certainly did me!

Here's one more case, this one for only one trick, but again in clubs. I can't help it. (My fourth case will be in hearts.) I only remember two suits here, but I remember what they signified, so I'm fairly certain the hand looked like this:

7 5
8 4 3
7 5 4
A Q 7 3 2
A K Q J 9 8 3
Q J 5
7 5
2

I dunno. This looks more like an opening bid than a pre-empt. Maybe I didn't have the ace of spades, and West played diamonds until I ruffed, then on regaining the lead with the ace of spades, continued diamonds. I'm just not as certain of the spades and diamonds as I am of clubs and hearts. I do remember it as a pre-empt, but in any event, neither clubs nor hearts had been led as I exhausted the opponents' trump and on the second or third round of trump a high club came winging out from my RHO! Here I'm doubtful that the signal guided me to anything. The ace of clubs is too valuable a card to throw away, and that heart holding offers an outside chance of a trick, even with only one lead toward the honors. If RHO has a singleton honor, or a doubleton honor or both top honors regardless of how many times, I've got a trick coming on a single lead. So I probably wouldn't have taken the hook in any event.
But signal East did when his partner doesn't need to know where the king is near as much as I do. As it happened, I didn't get a heart trick and was down one. Now my partner leaned forward: "Who had the king of clubs? Who had the king of clubs?" Oh, he was eager to know that. But when my RHO said that he had it, my partner relaxed and sat back.

Now here's one that has nothing to do with clubs, though since it's the first case that also has nothing to do with me, I guess it doesn't disperse any suspicion that I've got a fixation on clubs! Anyway . . . This hand was played by 101 pairs in no trump (on OKbridge). Twenty made 12 tricks, but of those twenty, 12 played from the North hand and got a heart opening lead. That means 8 played the hand without a heart lead (one playing from the North hand got a diamond opening lead, seven with a spade lead) and pulled home 12 tricks. The only way to pull home twelve tricks is to make East lead from his king of hearts.

A K J
Q 7 2
A Q 5
A 8 6 5
10 9 8 7 6 3 2 ------
8 K J 10 9 4
8 4 3 10 9 7 6 2
10 3 Q 9 7
Q 5 4
A 6 5 3 Contract: 6 no trump
K J
K J 4 2

I would say the way to do it is to squeeze East out of an exit card so that he must lead from his king of hearts, but one successful declarer threw East in at trick 2! And though East had 8 exit cards, he continued the suit, allowing declarer his 12th trick. This hand has been described in Squeeze Twelve, q.v. Declarer must cash the 7th black winner before the third diamond, or East isn't squeezed. But here I only want to talk about the almost certainly counterproductive signal. Of the seven declarers who played the hand as given above (and picked up 12 tricks), about five were treated to a pronounced heart signal from East on a spade lead! Well, now . . .
This hand has a few similarities with the first hand above. The opponents are in slam! How likely is it that your partner is going to get the lead back? How likely is it that your partner can profit from knowing of your lovely hearts? How likely is it that declarer can? You've got to see that declarer's the one who has to do the figuring here. The hand might be as simple as leading toward the queen of hearts, a 50-50 chance that this will do it for a 12th trick. Declarer's the one who has to work this out. Just sit back and let him try. If he makes a brilliant guess, you can congratulate him. But don't help him.
Oh, incidentally, a heart lead is what beats this hand (played as above). Declarer would surely duck, though it doesn't matter what he does. He's got 11 winners and no chance for a 12th -- if East gets out with anything but a heart. But failing a heart lead, it's too late for establishing a 2nd winner and the best East can do is simply lie low and tell declarer -- and his partner -- nothing about the nature of his hand.