Partnership Defense Philosophy
In order to defend well you have to work together with partners. Specific agreements are important, but “high-level” agreements are also important. Your philosophy on how we work together and how we signal is the most important part of this.
Dummy has Qxx+
When Dummy has a holding like Qxx (or longer) it is important to have good agreements about signaling our partner, so they can make a good decision about what to do next. This week we look at this situation in detail - attitude, count, suit preference, what does our card mean!?!
More Suit Preference
There is ore to suit preference signals than just the simple cases are trick 1. Here we look at even more places where you may use these valuable signaling tools.
Suit Preference
Our goal on defense is to help our partner. Suit Preference Signals are a way to do this by giving painter information about which suit we would like them to shift to (or where we hold good stuff).
Smith Echo (Reverse)
Against a NT contract, when the opponents win the first trick and attack another suit they are often leading their best suit. In this case, we have an opportunity to communicate with partner. Smith Echo is an agreement that makes use of this situation to tell partner if the opening lead was good or not.
Upside Down Count and Attitude
Giving Count and Attitude signals is a key part of defense. Modern expert players often use Upside Down Count and Attitude to communicate. Let’s see how it works!
Defensive Carding: Discards
When we run out of cards in a suit being played then we must discard. These discards are a great way to communicate with partner. Our first discard communicates a lot of information, but so do our subsequent discards. Here we look at making sure you are making good use of these discards.
Defensive Carding: Count Signals
Signaling with partner is an important part of working together to defend a hand. Attitude signals are extremely important, but so are count signals. Here we look at how to give them and more importantly, when they apply.
Defensive Carding: Attitude Signals
Attitude signals are some of the most important ways that we can communicate with our partner. Here we look at how to make them and when they apply so that we can work with partners effectively!
