Disguise

In the Colts-Chargers game (for those watching the Colts-Raiders game, please get a better cable package), we saw the Chargers use disguise as a tactic.

For the Colts, Peyton Manning usually lines up his offensive unit, looks over the defensive formation, and then makes an audible (i.e. shouts the play call to his team) that he thinks will work against the opponents. During yesterday's playoff game, Manning would line up his team, the Chargers would form up, and then Manning would do his audible. When his audible was almost done, the Chargers would then shift formations to what they were really going to use on the play. That is they disguised their defensive formation until after Manning had select his team's play. This may seem straight-forward, but other less successful tactics have included:

Bears coach Lovie Smith thinks his defense may be better off ignoring the frequent gestures, signals and audibles of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning seems to change more plays at the line of scrimmage than any NFL quarterback, but sometimes it's all a show, according to Smith.

(Daily Herald, 2004/11)

In yesterday's loss to the Chargers, the Colts only had 17 first downs and 64 net yards rushing - the Chargers use of disguise caused problems for AP's MVP of the NFL season Manning.

While the playoff game was going on, the Cayne squad took on the French juniors. Cayne showed the use of disguise here:


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At both tables, the heart queen was led against 1NT. At the other table, East covered the heart queen with the king, which assisted declarer in making 10 tricks. At this table, East played small, and now Cayne followed suit with the nine.

Players too often routinely follow small when a higher spot card can cause problems for the defense. Here, after Cayne played the heart nine at trick one, West played the heart jack at trick two - fail!

This started a nice rally for the French juniors:


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At the other table, West passed 1NT, which made 8 tricks. Here, West balanced with a cuebid to bring the majors into the auction, and East was able to compete to 3H, making 10 tricks and 7 IMPs.

It all came down to the last board and disguise:


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At the other table EW played in 3H making three. Here the French juniors got to 4H on the singleton club lead (1NT was forcing, 2C showed 3+, 3H a game invite). Now you can see the contract can be defeated by club ace, club ruff, diamond ace, and heart king. However when Cayne won the club ace, West disguised his holding by playing the club six. Now Cayne switched to a spade, and the contract had a chance. This was troublesome for North, as there was a good football game to watch on TV.

Declarer cashed two high spades, went to the trump ace, and cashed the spade ace pitching the diamond king. Now declarer ruffed the last spade, and then exited a small heart to the king. Cayne now played a club for North to ruff, but North couldn't ruff - winning the heart ten would leave North to lead away from Axxxx of diamonds with QJxx in dummy, and the heart three as an entry. To win the match Cayne had to play a diamond instead of trying to give the belated club ruff. The disguise play at trick two had the collateral effect of later muddling a defender's thinking.