Posted 2004-November-02, 05:23
Simple: defenders have to think first.
Let me make a couple of points: Whenever you signal you show the situation not only to your partner, but also to the declarer. And declarer can intercept these signals and a good one (not even necessarily an expert one) will. I certainly know I do. Have made lots of tops at MP by taking lots of "good views" except they weren't really views at all - the defence had nicely signalled to me where all the cards were. And it's helped at IMPs too, of course.
Not every card you play in defence has to be a signal. And not every discard, or even the first one, has to be a signal, whether it be suit preference or count or otherwise.
There are some hands on which partner will defend better if he knows which cards you hold or your suit lengths, but there are many where he doesn't need this information but declarer does.
Now, having said all that, there are also many occasions where you do want to signal. A signal can either be help for partner (helping partner know what you have to make an informed decision) or a command to partner (I want you to lead a diamond, now!). Not saying that either approach is right or wrong all the time - many would say that a signal should just show partner a holding, but there are occasions when you simply want partner to lead a diamond now, not because you have anything in the suit, but because you know his other choice, a heart, would be wrong. i.e. you know the situation better than partner does.
Someone above suggested odd/even against suits but Lavinthal against NT. The logic behind this is that in NT you often don't want to discard anything from your long suit, as you want to make all the tricks in it, but against a suit you hope to make a couple of tricks at most from the suit.
My own experience is that the suit-preference signal comes into its own early in the play, when declarer is drawing trumps or setting up his long suit in NT, and one player has a winner in the suit while the other is short. When the defender with the winner in the suit gets in, he needs to know what to lead. I think, in this situation, Lavinthal usually works better - you can almost always find a card to show it. (Not the case with odd/even).
Later in the play, when you are trying to show each other what suits you are holding on to, firstly you should consider count-showing discards. But odd-even may well work better here than Lavinthal, because you will often want to throw from the suit where you have length values and want to show partner you have it under control.
You should consider though playing revolving Lavinthal. This method always allows you to throw a low card, even when you want a spade.
It works as follows: the 3 remaining suits go round in a circle, and a low discard shows preference for the suit immediately below, while a high discard shows preference for the suit immediately above. So when discarding on hearts, a diamond discard would be as with regular Lavinthal - low for a club, high for a spade. But a club discard or a spade discard would be the reverse. A low club asks for a spade (the suit immediately "below" clubs, while a high spade asks for a club (the suit immediately "above" spades).
You can't keep a good man down