Discards, save the right suit
Signalling to your partner is less important
Keeping the right card for later on is usually much more important than sending messages to partner about what to lead. So you need to think very hard about which cards to keep.
- Keeping the right card is more important than signalling
- Keep 4 cards for any 4-card suits in either enemy hand
- Focus your memory efforts on your key suits only
- Plan things out at the beginning, and make early signals if needed
- Don't reveal weaknesses to the enemy
Keeping the right card is more important than signalling
It is of course important to tell your partner what to lead next, provided you don't use a card that you need in order to send the signal.
Keep 4 cards for any 4-card suits in (either) enemy hand
If you can see a 4-card suit in dummy, and you have 4-cards in that suit too, then don't discard from this suit. If you do, then the enemy will be able to play the 4th card from this suit and win an extra trick.
Sometimes you can work out from the bidding that declarer holds a 4-card suit. For example after Stayman, or when an enemy player changes suit for his second bid. The same notion applies.
Sometimes you'll have to make some sacrifices in other suits, in order to match dummy's 4-card holding.
Focus your memory efforts on your key suits only
When the dummy goes down at the start of play, decide which are your 2 key suits (ones with honour cards, or long suits), and decide if there could be winners there eventually. Do two important things
- watch for any discards, so you know exactly how many cards have been played in that suit;
- think about the shape of everyone's hands, based on the bidding, plus your partner's 'count' signals
Plan early, and signal if necessary
If you have to abandon a suit, decide as early as possible, to avoid piecemeal discarding.
And if you still want to send a suit preference signal
This link explains how you send the signal.
