Vinje’s Distribution Signal – An Update

Bruce Watson, St. John’s, Canada

 

In 2014, I wrote about a structural relationship among the four hands of a bridge deal which allows a defender to get declarer’s “unique suit” and “parity” once the unique suits and parities of the other three hands are known. That article, entitled Distribution Symbols and Signals, can be found in the “Esoterica” section of The Reading Room area of The Bridge World’s web site.

 

First a quick review of unique suit and parity. A hand with 3=4=3=3 distribution (the equal signs denote strict spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs order) has even parity with unique suit hearts. The distribution 5=5=1=2 also has even parity and the unique suit is clubs. The distribution 4=4=3=2 has odd parity with unique suit diamonds. The lone even or odd length suit in a hand determines its parity. That lone suit is its unique suit. Voids count as having even length.

 

Once the unique suit and parity are known for any three of the four hands in a deal, the unique suit and parity of the fourth hand can be determined from a table I constructed in the article. After the article appeared in the Bridge World, I received an email from John Sheehan who had found a way to improve my table. I incorporated his idea and added some poker terminology in constructing a new table. The intended point of the improvements, and this update, is to allow one or both defenders to reconstruct declarer’s unique suit and parity and to do it in tempo. Here is the revised table.

 

 

 

# of Different Unique Suits

(you, partner, dummy)

 

Unique Suit Pattern

(all four hands)

 

Parity Pattern

(all four hands)

 

1

 

Flush

 

Set

 

2

 

Double Suited

 

Set

 

3

 

Rainbow

 

Not a Set

(2 Pair or Quads)

Entries give Declarer's Unique Suit and Parity

As an exercise, pick any full hand diagram in your favourite bridge book or magazine. Cover one of the hands and determine the unique suits and parities of the other three. Assume, for this example, that the unique suits in the visible hands are clubs, diamonds and hearts. And the three visible parities are odd, odd and odd. Three distinct unique suits are represented. So, from the “3” row of the table, the entry in the middle column shows that the unique suit of the covered hand is spades because the unique suit pattern must be a “rainbow”. The three known parities were all odd. Therefore, the parity of the fourth hand must be odd as well since the “3” row and third column indicate that the four parities must form “quads” and cannot be a set. The four parities even, odd, odd, odd would be a set. In poker, three of a kind is called a set. And, a flush is all one suit and a rainbow is all different suits.

 

Once dummy is revealed during the play of a hand, each defender knows two sets of parities and unique suits - his own and dummy’s. Vinje’s suggestion, in his book “New Ideas in Defensive Play in Bridge” was for each defender to signal his own parity during the play. Then, hopefully, normal bridge discovery techniques would reveal partner’s unique suit.

 

If the opponents are playing a trump contract, Vinje’s signaling suit is the trump suit. When declarer or dummy leads trump a defender plays high-low spot cards with even parity (one even suit and three odd) or low-high with odd parity (one odd suit and three even). An opening trump lead from two or three small cards is the start of a high-low or low-high parity indicator. This gives partner complete information when the actual unique suit is identified. For memory purposes, we reverse Vinje’s signaling method since we normally play upside-down count signals.

 

Against a notrump contract, Vinje suggests that the signaling suit should be the first suit bid and supported by declarer and dummy. If no suit has been bid and supported, the signaling suit is the first suit initially led by declarer or dummy. The defenders signal, with spot cards as before, playing standard high-low for even parity and low-high for odd. We reverse this also and play upside-down.

 

Here is a Kit’s Korner hand from bridgewinners.com. Assume you and partner use Vinje’s Distribution Signal with “upside-down” signals (high-low = odd parity and low-high = even).

                                                                                         NS Vulnerable

 

♠ Q65

♥ AQ105

♦ KQJ2

♣ A9

 

         North

 

West            East

 

        South

♠ AKJ2

♥ 32

♦ 654

♣ QJ32

 

 

          South   West    North   East    

                                              1NT

           Pass    2        X         2   

           4        Pass    5   All Pass

 

You are East and your 1NT opener showed 10-12 HCP. Partner’s 2was either invitational+ or scrambling. The auction suggests the latter. Partner leads the ♠10 which you overtake. Declarer follows to the first spade then ruffs your ♠A continuation. Declarer next plays a club to the ace and a club to the king as you split your honors. Partner played the 7followed by the 5♣ showing one odd suit which must be his five spades. The unique suits among you, dummy and partner are diamonds, spades and spades. Since two suits are represented, look at the “2” row of the table. The second column indicates that the unique suits are “double suited”. So, declarer’s unique suit is diamonds. The three known parities meanwhile are odd, odd and odd. The third column of the 2 row indicates that the 4 parities must form a “set”. So, declarer must have even parity. Since 1=5=2=5 can be ruled out on the auction, declarer must be 1=3=4=5. When declarer plays ♥K from hand, then ♥J overtaking and the ♥A from dummy you know it is safe to ruff. Declarer’s hand was:

8   KJ4  ♦ A983  ♣ K10864.

 
Feb 1, 2020