Welcome to the world of blogging Jim. Congrats on your first blog – nice hand.

Cute hand, thanks for sharing.

P.S. As for me, I prefer suit preference. Count and attitude don’t seem as important with dummy having shortness.

I like suit preference too, but what card does East play at trick 1? Does he want a club through his queen or a diamond? Or neither? Not much choice. And if he prefers a diamond to a club should partner ignore his signal and continue hearts?

Nice hand Jim :))

When the defense can take no more tricks in a led suit, Keith and I play high & low cards are suit preference, so East would play the 2 for a Club shift. We suggest the Club 8 is the right card to lead. It’s hard to see how declarer can take 10 tricks after a club shift.

When we have length in the led suit, we have the option of playing a middle card to suggest a continuation.

The approach I advocate is to play standard signaling methods when a singleton in the led suit appears in dummy. Continuations are based on “obvious shift” analysis.

Of course, the “obvious shift” is not always obvious. But neither is suit preference signaling always perfect.

The advantage of regular signals is that forcing dummy is often the best defense: you may be protecting a trump trick, or starting a trump control (forcing) defense. And, of course, there are times when you cannot stand a shift.

My use of the term “standard signals” here has nothing to do with upside down versus standard – use whatever partner prefers.

The diamond shift is a defensive killer, as the hand plays itself….it’s a fun hand.

Good luck on your future blogs, as I’m looking forward to more great hands.

For fans of this issue, two recent relevant items in The Bridge World, July 2010, p. 29 letter from John Stiefel, Wethersfield, CT and p. 23 “Son of Defense at Trick One” by David J. Weiss, Fullerton, CA, Problem 2.