[pclayton]

One of the nice things about the LM pairs is that they make the carryover relatively small (4 boards max). In the qualifying, you had a 52% and a 53% so you are only 3 boards back from the leaders. You are off to a good start in the final and look at this collection: ♠KT3 ♥AJ3 ♦9752 ♣ 1052. 2♣ on your right, 2♥ negative on your left, 2N on your right, 3♣ (puppet) on your left, 3N on your right (no 4 or 5cM). What is your lead?
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I tried the ♦5 - passive / agressive and was greeted with:

Scoring: MP

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Low from Dummy, 10 from pard, Ace from declarer.

Declarer lays down the A♠, low, low, TWO.
Q♠ now?

Your agreements are UDCA and regular Smith echo. Side question: What does pard's ♠2 mean? Do you win or duck?

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Of course you win. Pard's 2♠ is clearly COUNT with this sterile dummy. Smith doesn't apply. On the ♠K, pard plays the Eight. How do you continue?
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Pard's 8 spot should be suit preference for hearts. You know declarer has a max of 3. Pard is also marked with roughly 5-7 HCP and they aren't in diamonds or spades.

You lay down the A♥, small, deuce (yes!), 4 from declarer. Last decision: Do you play the 3 or the Jack?
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The entire hand:

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After some thought I laid down the J♥ - Down TWO . I figured pard was 5:3 to hold the ♥10.

Jeff Goldsmith spotted a nice catch here. With "solid" hearts - the 10-8, pard should play the TEN, to convey that hearts are running. What a great fence builder for pard! You've already signaled for hearts, so this confirms their solidity.

Down 2 was a tie for top.

[cherdano]

Nice hand! Following the writeup, I got all decisions right, but I am doubtful I would have done so at the table.

Btw, my thinking without seeing partner's hand was that ♥2 should confirm a second honor, as ♠8 has already shown the king (originally, it has to promise a card higher than dummy's queen). Does that make sense? (Yes I know, irrelevant question unless it makes sense to partner too.)

Arend

[han]

Nice hand Phil, and congratuations on your nice results.

[mike777]

Anyone for suit preference at trick two with 8 of spades or does Smith or Reverse Smith Echo take precedence?

[Fluffy]

I woudlahd failed on the smith echo I think. WD phil.

[han]

mike777, on Nov 25 2005, 05:45 PM, said:

Anyone for suit preference at trick two with 8 of spades or does Smith or Reverse Smith Echo take precedence?

If you play suit preference at trick two then you don't play smith echo. If you play smith echo then you don't play suit preference. But whatever your agreement is, you must give count in this situation.

[mike777]

I would also lead a d, the 7 or 9 as attitude but still pretty much the same.
Give declarer 22 hcp with most hcp in minors on this auction? That means partner has around 7 hcp with zero in spades at trick 3? If partner follows with 7 of spades as another suit pref card for hearts at trick 3??
If so it seems playing suit pref at trick 2 and the 8 of spades at trick is clearly the highest spade out so must show K of h yes? It seems suit pref works fine at least on this hand at trick 2.

BTW I would show K of h and not K of clubs on this auction and looking at shortish h in dummy.

[pclayton]

In this partnership everything is 3/5th.

The ♠8 should be suit preference I think. Brian has three 'known' ♠ cards at that point.

While I like the active defense here, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Declarer still only has 7 tricks so I can just as easily exit a ♦ and the defence is fine as long as we discard correctly.

But I think its an instructional hand as far as effective signaling is concerned.

[kgr]

Smith Echo = I did like the first suit you played? correct?
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Now on this hand partner plays ♠2. Because of the weak dummy, both partner and you play this as count.
Next card played by partner is ♠8. Is this (delayed) smith echo or is this suit preference? Why not (delayed) smith echo?