Surrogate Signals

How do you show suit preference for the trump suit?  Some play that an illogical request suggests a trump shift. For example,

(1)

You lead a club.  Partner wins with the ace and returns one.  In general, a high club requests a heart return; a low club, a diamond return.  But here a diamond makes no sense.  In the "illogical request" method, diamonds becomes a surrogate for trumps.  So a low club suggests a trump shift, catering to

Others see this method as perverse.  If you must choose between spades and hearts, why not make those the operative suits?  A high club should ask for a spade; a low club, for a heart.  On this deal it doesn't matter which way you play as long as you have an agreement.   But sometimes it does matter: 

(2)

Playing surrogate suit preference (SSP), a high club asks for a heart; a low club asks you to choose as best you can between a spade and a diamond.  Which should you choose?  I suspect that, on balance, a spade offers a better chance to defeat the contract.  A diamond shift requires finding partner with the diamond king and the king-queen of spades.  Still, a diamond will often hold the overtrick.  I would probably choose a spade at IMPs and a diamond at matchpoints.       

Playing absolute suit preference (ASP), success hinges on your analyzing the spade versus diamond problem the same way as your partner.  If partner thinks this is a spade-or-heart hand, he will play high for spades and low for hearts.  Otherwise, he will play high for hearts and low for diamonds.  To solve the defense, you and your partner must reach the same conclusion.  If you don't, you will find yourself letting declarer make the hand even when partner holds the heart ace.  

SSP's greater clarity springs from its use of tight coupling between suit and signal.  You always know which card partner will play to request a particular suit.  In ASP, you can't tell how partner will signal for hearts until you analyze the spade- versus-diamond question.  So any ambiguity garbles the entire message. 

Since many pairs play surrogate suit preference, it surprises me that so few play the method I outline below.  Like SSP, it employs tight coupling to avoid ambiguity.  The method applies when you have led a short suit and partner wins and shifts.

(3)

You lead a spade.  Partner wins with the ace and cashes the ace of hearts.  Since partner can have no reason to continue hearts, even if he had one, I suspect most players would treat this as a suit-preference situation and would play the nine.

(4)

This time, the ace of hearts would probably fetch the deuce, an attitude card suggesting that the defense has better things to do than to cash heart tricks.

But this method carries the same potential for ambiguity as ASP. In one case, a high card shows a singleton spade; in the other case, a low card does.  Before you know how to request your ruff, you must determine partner's likely alternative play. These two deals offer no challenge in that regard.  But what about the continuum of deals in between?  If you play attitude at times and suit-preference at other times, how do you decide where along this continuum to make the switch? 

To avoid ambiguity, you must maintain tight coupling between suit and signal.  You should either always play suit-preference (signaling for the off suit to deter the ruff) or always play attitude (encouraging to deter the ruff).  Attitude strikes me as more natural.  After all, some would request their ruff by frowning.  To me, that sounds like an attitude situation.

Sometimes third hand has the possible singleton.

(5)                   

You lead the spade ace.  You could go for the throat and continue spades, but that seems unduly reckless.  So you switch to the heart ace.  If partner began with a singleton spade, he will discourage and you can salvage one ruff.

(6)

Again, you lead the spade ace and switch to the heart ace.  This time, everyone knows you have no intention of continuing hearts. You will either give partner a spade ruff or try to cash a club. But how does partner request this ruff?  Since your choice lies between a spade and a club, most pairs would give suit-preference.  I would still give attitude, "encouraging" to deny a singleton spade.

To my mind, playing low for spades on (5) and high for spades on (6) begs for an accident.  Somewhere in between these extremes lurks a deal where you won't know which method to use.  Perhaps this one:

(7)

How should partner play when you cash the heart ace at trick two?  Most players I have asked say they will shift to a club no matter which heart partner plays.  They have more confidence that he needs an ace for his double than that they can interpret his signal. 

Why play a method where you must ignore partner's signal in frustration?  When we classify (5) as a spade-versus-heart problem and (6) as a spade-versus-club problem, we create a distinction that serves no purpose.  If, instead, we classify them both as spade-versus-something-else problems, we can employ the same signal in each case.  That way we pre-empt a misunderstanding in a borderline situation.      

Sometimes luck offers you a third way to signal.  To return to the earlier example:

(8)                   

Against five diamonds, you lead the nine of spades.  Partner wins with the ace and plays the heart ace.  Low would request a spade ruff; high, a heart continuation.  If a heart continuation made no sense, hearts would serve as a surrogate for clubs.  But here, a continuation could make sense.  Fortunately, you have a third option.  The heart queen, an alarm clock signal, can be used to request whatever you cannot otherwise ask for: in this case, a club.

Sometimes you can solve a three-way problem even without an alarm clock signal.

(9)

 Partner leads the six of hearts.  You win with the king and cash the club ace.  If partner has the spade king, he should discourage to suggest that you play ace and a heart.  He can't know this will work (from his point of view, the heart ace might not cash), but it will certainly look like his best chance. 

If he has the club king or diamond ace, he should encourage to deflect you from the overruff plan.  You can't tell which honor he has.  But if you play a club, you will probably get a second chance at the diamond ace.  You will lose the diamond ace only if declarer began with king-jack-fourth of clubs (and partner failed to bid five diamonds with ace-sixth).

This deal recently appeared in a column with dummy holding king-jack of clubs instead of queen doubleton.  The author suggested that partner give suit preference on the club ace.  As you know by now, I disagree.  For the sake of consistency, I would still discourage to ask for a heart ruff and encourage to suggest the alternative.