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 2♣ was 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 7♣ followed 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.