11 tricks off the top

Dear readers, today's story is a perfect example that Bridge is a game of common sense and not just dry rules.

Before a teams tournament a player said to his partner: "Pay attention to my signals! Rule says lead our 4th best card from a suit with an honor. The card we lead is important to me, as it tells a lot about the length of partner's suit. For example, if I lead the 2 it should be clear to you that I have a suit with only 4 cards: The 2 is the 4th, so there are 3 cards above it, and... none below it. So, if I have more than 4 cards in that suit I will lead the 4th card, and later on will play a lower card to show you that my suit is longer. In other words, if I lead the 3 and later on play the 2 – I am showing you that I have a 5 suiter headed by an honor. Clear?!"

His partner responded: "Well, I look at carding only when it's needed, and signal only when it's necessary, and only what I judge my partner needs to be signaled. Otherwise I just use common sense, as Bridge is a great game of thinking".

The other player did not agree at all and insisted to follow the rule at all times. The two argued for quite a bit until the game started, and no agreement was reached about how they will be signaling.

And then came this hand, where they lost 16 IMPs:

Dealer South - North - South vulnerable:


At both tables, the bidding went exactly the same, with South opening 1NT on that semi balanced hand. At both tables the lead was the ♥3, 4th best.

At "our" table, the "common sense" player won the lead with his ♥A when declarer tried the ♥K. He then played the ♥Q, on which the "rule" player followed with the ♥2 to show (with a huge victory smile) that he lead from a 5 suiter.

And now what?

No more Hearts in hand, Diamonds are not an option, and dummy's black suits look just the same. Which suit to continue?

With no clear preference he looked at his partners 2nd card in the hope that it will signal suit preference, as he thought it should, since showing length of the heart suit meant nothing now when he had no more Hearts to play. And so, seeing the ♥2 card still on the table, he continued with a Club, thinking the ♥2 is a clear preference to the lower ranking suit.

The surprised declarer almost fell off his chair when he saw the club switch and immediately claimed 11 tricks off the top: 5 Clubs and 6 Diamonds: 3NT + 2 = 660.

What happened at the other table, you wonder?

11 tricks where cashed off the top there as well, but with a slight difference: On the ♥Q, West followed with the ♥9! East had no problems taking the ♥9 as suit preference to Spade and continued with a Spade at trick 3. West won the ♠A when declarer tried the ♠K. He then cashed his ♥J82 and continued with the ♠Q, followed by the ♠10 which East overtook with the ♠J and cashed the rest of his top Spades: 5 Hearts and 6 Spades = 11 tricks off the top! 3NT – 7 = -700. And a total swing of 1360 points which cost their team 16 IMPs.

"I still think my play was correct", insisted the rule player.

"Yeah, sure... Like the doctor said: The operation I performed was a great success, too bad the patient died...", responded his partner with a bitter tone and added:

"Or if you prefer «Amazing brain surgery, Doctor, but your patient came with a heart attack...» In other words partner, when you signal - signal what's important for me to know".