Suit Preference Signal

There are no special deals in this week. I haven't meant to post a blog in this week, but this may be still worth to be recorded.

Board 7
Vul: Both
Dealer: South

 South     West       North     East

 Pass        1♣             X           Pass

  1♡         Pass         1♠         2♣

  X            Pass         2♠         Pass

 4♠           AP

Lead: ♡T


Trick     North      East     South     West
   1           ♡5         ♡T        ♡2           ♡A
   2           ♡8         ♣ 3       ♡6           ♡K
   3           ♡J          ♠ 9       ♡7           ♡3
   4                            ?

You lead ♡T and your partner wins with the ♡A, playing ♡K and ♡3 orderly. You ruff in the third trick. And now, what's your plan?

North bids 2♠ rather than 2♡, which indicates that he may have 3♡ only. So your partner holds 4♡. The order that your partner plays in heart is the key to the problem.  If he hopes you return ♣ strongly, he will play K,A,3 in turn. In other words, assuming that he holds ♢K,  he will play A,K,4 in sequence. A,K,3 shows that he prefers ♢ to ♣. If he holds both ♢Q and ♣K, he might play in such order. Assuming that he holds ♣K only, he might play K,A,4. 

Now you have won 3 tricks, where is the fourth winner? You partner seems not to have ♢K or ♣A. The contract looks like icy. Is there any hope? Obviously, ♠Q might be your last hope, if declarer finesse ♠Q, it might be the fourth winner. So returning ♢ may be a better choice, which creates an extra entry for dummy to finesse ♠Q.

The full deal
Board 7
Vul: Both
Dealer: South