[AL78]

MPs, opps playing Acol:

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We play HELD (on discards) and count signals, and whilst I wasn't sure what was optimal at trick one I decided to win and return my fourth best heart. Partner got psuedo-squeezed and threw her spade guard allowing declarer to make ♠AKJ at the end. She said she didn't know whether declarer had ♠AK♥X or ♠AKx♥- at the critical time and was on a guess.

I have a feeling I could have made this easier for partner maybe by dropping the jack on the run of clubs or diamonds which should promise the ten, then partner knows her ♥Q is unnecessary and can be safely discarded. What do you think?

[mycroft]

You drop the *♥4* on the run of the clubs. That's why you return the fourth-best heart in this situation. Now partner knows (if he's paying attention).

Okay, you might have been A64. But then declarer has 5 hearts and, at the relevant time, his three cards are ♠AK ♥xx.

Sure, pitching the ♥J should convince partner that you have the ten as well. And you can do that if you need to. But pitch the fifth-best heart first.

[akwoo]

mycroft, on 2022-November-12, 09:55, said:

You drop the *♥4* on the run of the clubs. That's why you return the fourth-best heart in this situation. Now partner knows (if he's paying attention).

Okay, you might have been A64. But then declarer has 5 hearts and, at the relevant time, his three cards are ♠AK ♥xx.

Sure, pitching the ♥J should convince partner that you have the ten as well. And you can do that if you need to. But pitch the fifth-best heart first.

He *did* pitch the 5th best heart on the last trick shown, just before partner had to decide.

At OP's level, partner is not going to be able to put together 3 pieces of information to make an inference. They can handle one piece of information, and quite likely can only handle it when it's given at the right time. So I think the J♥ is indeed the right pitch.

I wouldn't pitch the J opposite a good partner; they'd be wondering why I didn't pitch the 4.

[Cyberyeti]

You need to pitch ♠8 to show an even number then it's easy.

[mycroft]

Okay, I didn't see the run. I apologize. If OP did pitch the 4, then it's a Simple Matter of Counting. One that I would suggest about 80% of club players "should" do automatically, but 70% don't. And I include myself in that, way more often than I would like.

To someone who needs the count, yet doesn't pay attention to partner giving them the count, I'm not sure that dropping the J will be any more helpful. It should trigger "must have the 10, otherwise...?" but also could be "blanking that suit to keep Kxx of spades" (yes, he knows partner can't have the ♠K. Because he's counted to 16 and there are no other cards available for Declarer's 18-19. That is also a Simple Matter of Counting. Which one do you play partner for (not) doing?)

I'd rather DTRT and play partner to be at the table, than assume partner needs an alarm clock to wake up and count. Not that Alarm Clock Signals don't have a place, but this isn't it.

I could also be totally out to lunch.

[pescetom]

I abstain, as at this time of night I fail to understand why S has to guess the declarer's hand to decide to discard a second diamond rather than a spade

[dokoko]

At the critical moment partner had to decide whether you returned the 6 from ♥AJT64 or ♥A64.

You may translate that into declarer having a 1-5-2-5 or 3-3-2-5 distribution. He got that wrong but obviously shouldn't have.