Suit Preference: The Abused and Misused Signal

By James Marsh Sternberg MD and Danny Kleinman

SUIT PREFERENCE SIGNALS
If there was ever an area in bridge that resembles walking thru a mine field this is it. No topic causes more confusion and arguments than suit preference signals. “Partner, I played a deuce. Why didn’t you switch to a club?” is heard everywhere all the time.
Most signals in bridge are attitude and some are count. At the end of the line are suit preference signals. And yet, they can be found in the most unusual and useful opportunities, often overlooked.
The authors here thru the use of many deals explain the do’s and don’ts of suit preference signals. The history of suit preference and it’s present methods are clearly explained. After reading this book with your partner, your defensive signaling will improve so you will be able to traverse the minefields unafraid, and put fear into your opponent’s, defeating contracts that others are making.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665561730

James Marsh Sternberg MD

Dr James Marsh Sternberg is a radiologist in Palm Beach Gardens Florida & Professor of Radiology at two northern universities. He currently teaches bridge in Florida. He has won several North American National Championships and has written extensively for many bridge publications. He is the author of “Playing To Trick One”, There Are No Mulligans In Bridge. “Dr J” lives in Palm Beach Gardens with Vickie Bader.He can be reached at [e-mail].

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© 2022 James Marsh Sternberg MD (Dr J)and Danny Kleinman (Mr. Spots). All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/16/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6174-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6173-0 (e)

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Other Books by James Marsh Sternberg

Playing to Trick One; No Mulligans in Bridge (2nd Ed)

Trump Suit Headaches; Rx for Declarers & Defenders

The Finesse; Only a Last Resort

Blocking and Unblocking

Shortness – A Key to Better Bidding (2nd Ed)

When Michaels Met the Unusual

From Zero to Three Hundred; A Bridge Journey

Reversing the Dummy

Trump Promotion; The Uppercut

books by James Sternberg and Danny Kleinman

Second Hand High; Third Hand Not So High

An Entry, An Entry; My Kingdom for an Entry

L – O – L Loser on Loser

In Search of a Second Suit

Elimination and Endplay

Suit Preference; Abused and Misused

also by Danny Kleinman

Countless books on backgammon and contract bridge

Songs, vignettes, fables, satires

A memoir

One Man, One Vote: A Ballot For Americans

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Introduction

When To Signal Attitude

The Suit Preference Signal:

Use With Caution; For Professional Drivers Only

A Look Back In Time

General Considerations

Alarm Clock Signals

Trump Suit Preference

How To Use This Book

Part I – Getting Started

Deal 1. A Basic Suit Preference

Deal 2. Sworn to Silence

Deal 3. Danger Lurking

Deal 4. A Starting Point

Deal 5. Déjà Vu

Deal 6. High Spots Can Be Low

Deal 7. One Story is Enough

Deal 8. See You Later, Alligator

Deal 9. Saving Partner’s Entry

Deal 10. Innocent or Guilty?

Deal 11. Please Heed My Cry

Deal 12. Get Partner’s Attention

Deal 13. Assess the Blame

Deal 14. A Little Help, Please

Deal 15. Compounding the Errors

Deal 16. Which One?

Deal 17. Anticipation

Deal 18. Trusting Your Friend

Deal 19. No Guessing

Deal 20. A Perfect Hand for Roman Keycard Blackwood

Part II – Moving Right Along

Deal 2. Deal 21. Very Strange

Deal 22. You Are Out of Order

Deal 23. Watch Those Spots

Deal 24. Sneaky, Sneaky

Deal 25. Getting the Right Switch

Deal 26. Very Specific

Deal 27. High or Low?

Deal 28. Whet’s Missing?

Deal 29. Is it or Isn’t it?

Deal 30. Who’s to Blame?

Deal 31. Count Your Tricks

Deal 32. Attitude, Suit Preference, or What?

Deal 33. Making the Switch

Deal 34. Two Spot-Card Tests

Deal 35. Still Sitting?

Deal 36. The Expert’s Advice

Deal 37. One, Two, Three, Four

Part III – Getting Into It

Deal 3. Deal 38. Homage to Charlie Goren

Deal 39. Insurance

Deal 40. It’s Your Lead

Deal 41. What’s Going On?

Deal 42. Are You Awake?

Deal 43. Another Opening Lead

Deal 44. Good Lead

Deal 45. Wake Up, Please

Deal 46. Subtle but Clear

Deal 47. Help Please

Deal 48. Trump Suit Preference

Deal 49. SPINS

Deal 50. Plan Ahead

Deal 51. Make a Suggestion

Deal 52. The Faithless Husband

Deal 53. Sometimes a Signal, Sometimes Not

Deal 54. Rodney Dangerfield

Deal 55. Who was Arthur?

Deal 56. Helping Out

Deal 57. The Deuce That Roared

Deal 58. A Tip from a Kibitzer

Deal 59. High-Level Guessing

Part IV – The Final Test

Deal 4. Deal 60. When Jim’s Team Met Danny’s

Deal 61. The Tenth Commandment

Deal 62. Four Tests

Deal 63. Just Because It’s You, Isabel

Deal 64. Trust

Deal 65. Careful

Deal 66. Taking No Chances

Deal 67. Good Try

Deal 68. Suspicious

Deal 69. Overcoming Deception

Deal 70. How Much Is a Doubleton Jack Worth?

Deal 71. Loud and Clear

Deal 72. I Hear You, Partner

Deal 73. Priorities in Signaling

Deal 74. Fourth Time’s the Charm

Deal 75. I’ll Take Any Help You Can Offer

Deal 76. Dry Honors

Deal 77. Dry Again

Deal 78. A Little Larceny

Deal 79. Three In The Soup

Deal 80. Pay Close Attention

Deal 81. Broke, But Still Can Help

Deal 82. Continue or Switch?

Deal 83. Wrong Batter Up

Deal 84. When Ted Williams Struck Out

Deal 85. Both Sides Now

Dual Message Discards

Odd-Even Discards

Lavinthal Suit Preference Discards

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the help of several friends. Frank Stewart, Michael Lawrence, Anne Lund, Willie Fuchs, and the late Eddie Kantar, all suggested material for the book.

Jim is forever indebted to Hall of Famer Fred Hamilton and the late Allan Cokin and Bernie Chazen, without whose guidance and teaching he could not have achieved whatever success he has had in bridge.

And to Vickie Lee Bader, whose love and patience helped guide him thru the many hours of work on this book.

Danny is indebted to Alan Brody, Norman Gore, William DeForest, Dick Recht and Ronnie Blau for the friendship and guidance that spurred his career in bridge.

DEDICATION

This book on defense is fittingly dedicated to the guru of defense, the legendary teacher and writer

EDWIN KANTAR

… friend, occasional opponent, partner and teammate, whom we thank for his good bridge writing and his good company for more than half a century.

INTRODUCTION

Suit preference. Abused? Misused? Why? One would think this would be so simple. Partner, I played a deuce. Why didn’t you switch to a club?

Or worse, partner leads an ace to Trick 1, normally promising the king by partnership agreement, and you play the deuce. Faster than a speeding bullet, she underleads her ♣K letting declarer score two tricks with the ♣AQ, giving up the setting trick. But you played a deuce.

We’ve heard that many times. And therein lies the problem.

So you played a two, but what the deuce did that two mean? Most likely, it had as much to do with playing a club as your caddy’s advice to use a two-iron on the next hole.

In his excellent book Defensive Tips For Bad Card Holders, Eddie Kantar subtitles his section When to Give Suit Preference with A Dangerous Topic! in parentheses. Yes indeed.

The first thing to note is that most plays by defenders are NOT SIGNALS AT ALL. Most of the time, defenders’ plays are attempts to win the current trick, attempts to keep declarer from winning the trick cheaply, or attempts to preserve cards that may be useful later. Only when the defender’s partner can see that his play is not any of these may he wonder whether it is a signal. And even then, it may not be.

Sometimes it is a singleton. Sometimes it may be the only card that he’s sure he won’t need later. And sometimes he may believe, correctly or mistakenly, that any signal will help declarer more than it will help the defense. You don’t want your signals to tell declarer in which suits his finesses will work and in which suits they will fail.

There are three basic signals in bridge: attitude, count, and suit preference. Or are there more?

Count is actually part of a more comprehensive category of signal: holding in the suit. Here’s an example. We’ll suppose here that you play standard signals, nothing fancy (such as the Upside-Down Signals that many beginners love because they think it marks them as sophisticated).

Partner, West, leads the ♣K against an opposing contract reached in an uncontested auction. Dummy turns up with ♣A32. You, East, have ♣1098. Which club should you play? Does it depend on whether declarer calls low or the ♣A? Should you show attitude, count or suit preference?

Answer, you can’t show attitude because you don’t have any attitude to show. If partner has ♣KQJ6 you’d be happy to see him continue but if he has ♣KQ76 you’d be devastated if he did. Trouble is, you don’t know which he has, You can’t show count (you would have to play the ♣8, your lowest, from ♣J8 doubleton, and you can’t show suit preference because your partner isn’t expecting suit preference from you).

What you can show is holding, albeit perhaps ambiguously. Play the ♣10. Unless it’s a singleton (but the auction may tell partner that it isn’t), West will know that you can afford to play it, which marks you with the ♣9. Partner will know what to do, depending on his own club holding.

Remember the phrase, can afford to play it, for that is the primary meaning of every signal. We call this kind of signal a Solid On Down signal and you should make it a part of your repertoire.

Often no one card can be a signal at all. To complete a high-low, normally encouraging or showing an even number of cards in the suit, you need two cards. You also need two cards to complete a low-high, normally discouraging or showing an odd number of cards.

Sometimes partner may play a card that looks like the start of a high-low only to be followed by a still higher card. If partner has a lower card left, then his signal is a special signal we call Cash Then Shift, a useful signal to have in your repertoire.

A good guideline: interpret a signal as the start of a high-low if you can see that at least two lower cards in the suit are missing. But that