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Summary of signalling

GENERAL RULES OF DEFENSIVE SIGNALS

�?When following to a suit or when discarding in a suit, the relative height

of a card is used to send signals.

�?Signals are usually given with cards from two to nine.

�?A signal can be fully interpreted from the bidding, from the cards seen

on the dummy and from the cards held in your hand.

�?It is sometimes necessary to wait until partner plays to the second round

in a suit to fully understand a signal.

�?It is not always appropriate to signal, especially with a strong defensive hand.

�?It is not mandatory to follow your partner's signals when not suitable

given the context of a hand.

�?It is usually profitable to signal as much as possible against less experienced players.

�?It is recommended to always signal on the opening lead.

ATTITUDE SIGNAL

The attitude signal indicates the level of interest toward the suit in which the signal is given. Common practice are positive and negative attitude signals.

�?A relatively high card shows positive attitude toward the suit being led, or

�?A relatively high card shows negative attitude toward the suit being led,

�?An echo is a positive attitude signal consisting in a high card followed

as soon as possible with a lower card.

COUNT SIGNAL

The count signal is used to show the number of cards held in a suit being led.

�?A relatively high card shows an even number of cards in a suit being led,

�?A relatively low card shows an odd number of cards in a suit being led.

Count is given by playing high-low from two cards, low from three or five cards and second-high followed with third-high from four cards.

PREFERENCE SIGNAL

The preference signal is used to show a preference for one of the two suits outside the trump suit and the suit being led.

�?A relatively high card shows a preference for the higher-ranking suit

outside the trump suit and the suit being led,

�?A relatively low card shows a preference for the lower-ranking suit

outside the trump suit and the suit being led.

PRECEDENCE WHEN SIGNALING

a) When following to a suit led by your partner:

�?signal attitude with your first card,

�?signal preference with your second card.

b) When following to a suit led by the declarer:

�?signal count with your first card,

�?signal preference with your second card.

c) When discarding in an suit not led yet:

�?signal attitude with your first card,

�?signal present count with your second card.

d) When discarding in a suit already led:

�?signal present count.

ROMAN DISCARDS (ODD/EVEN)

a) An odd discard encourages continuation of a suit being led.

b) An even discard discourages continuation of a suit being led.

c) A relatively high even card suggests a shift to the higher-ranking suit

other than the trump suit,

d) A relatively low even card suggests a shift to the lower-ranking suit

other than the trump suit.

Advantages:

When wishing continuation of a suit but lacking an odd card to encourage, trying to give a preference signal would look inconsistent.

LAVINTHAL DISCARDS

a) A relatively low card shows a preference for the suit ranking immediately

below the suit being discarded (clubs ask for spades),

b) A relatively high card shows a preference for the suit ranking immediately

above the suit being discarded (spades ask for clubs).

Advantages:

�?Allows suggesting a shift to a given suit from two other suits,

�?Avoids wasting a high card in a suit you wish your partner to shift,

�?Reduces the possibility of false carding by declarer.

REVERSE SIGNALS (UDCA)

a) A relatively low card encourages the continuation of a suit being led

b) A relatively high card discourages the continuation of a suit being led

Advantages:

�?Avoids wasting a high card to signal positive attitude in a suit,

�?reduces the possibility of false carding by declarer.

RUSINOW LEADS (JOURNALIST LEADS)

Lead the second higher-ranking honor from a sequence of two or more honors. Applies only against suit contracts in suits not declared by your partner during the auction. Leads other than the opening lead are standard.

Advantages:

�?Reduces the ambiguity of leads from ace-king or king-queen.

MUD LEADS

MUD means Middle-Up-Down (when leading from xx x). MUD leads do not apply to suits declared by your partner during the auction.

JOURNALIST (LEAD OF AN HONOR AGAINST NOTRUMP)

Each lead of an honor has a special meaning:

�?the lead of a jack denies a higher-ranking honor,

�?the lead of a ten promises the ace, the king or the queen,

�?the lead of a nine promises the ten or no higher-ranking honor or

a doubleton (lead the eight from 987),

�?the lead of an ace shows AKJxx or AKQ10x or AK109x,

�?the lead of a king shows AK or KQ,

�?the lead of a queen shows QJ10 or KQ109 and requests unblocking the jack when held.

Advantages:

Journalist leads eliminate the ambiguity of leading from the top of inner sequences (lead of the jack from KJ109).

CODED NINES AND TENS

Coded nines and tens leads are used against notrump contracts.

�?The lead of a ten promises the jack plus another non-consecutive

higher-ranking honor or shows top of a sequence without a higher-ranking honor,

�?The lead of a nine promises the ten plus another non-consecutive

higher-ranking honor or shows top of a sequence without a higher-ranking honor

Ok I'm confused! So what's so new about that huh? I'm trying to play UDCA and odd/even discards. I orginally believed that odd/even applied to discarding on a suit lead which you have a void or played out. In fact Bill Root's book implies that odd/even would be illegal in most US events if used otherwise. Now I am told this is not so.

Does this mean that upside down attitude signals are voided and I have to play an odd card to encourage partner even if I hold the 2 and 4 of the suit. Help a poor very bad defender please.

A discard by definition is pitching a card when you do not have to follow suit. So roman discards (or odd/even discards) only apply by definition when you are discarding - not following suit. Most people who play roman play that it applies only to the first discard.

UDCA (upside down count and attitude) applies in particualr when you are following suit ie. a low card = positive attitude; and high-low = odd count. Your discarding can also be 'UDA' (i.e. any low spot discard = lead that suit, and high spor discard = dont like that suit).

we [partnerships] seem to have a preference for which treatment we prefer......roman discards is my prefered treatment.

I don't quite understand this part.

When following to a suit led by your partner:

�?signal attitude with your first card,

�?signal preference with your second card.

Does it mean the 2nd time anyone else leads the suit or just the 2nd time partner leads the suit that I signal preference?

Say partner leads diamonds 1st, declarer wins then decides to play on diamonds a few rounds later, do I signal preference on that round? Or do I signal count?

Or does it mean I have to wait until partner gets the lead and plays another round of diamonds before signalling preference?

I have learned that standard depends upon the country and sometimes even the region of the country in which you live. I believe that in Europe, UDCA is standard, whereas in the US high low, encouraging and low high, discouraging is standard. So that in Europe UDCA would be what we use to them.

Ross didn't go into major detail, I agree, however what he did present is certainly better than knowing nothing at all. Perhaps you could do better PK.

Thanks for the replies, could any of you provide information about a standard system that most novices should use? Please be very clear, I don't have much experience with signalling systems, I know how count, attitude and suit preference works, but I'm not sure when to use them and when a card is a signal.

you call " suit preference" and "lavinthal" as two different signals but are the same.as far as I know.

the part you call LAVINTHAL is according to " the official encyclopedia of bridge" the revolving discards!!

a low card asks for suit below a high for suit above

Folks like me LOVES these types of thread and notice its under the heading BRIDGE BASICS!! Please dont do anything to give Ross any reasons to stop posting these "lessons" which he does voluntarily!

And Rusty, maybe you or my good buddy Dan (QS)can expalin this to me.

You are defending and P leads a suit..I have seen some posts here that your

play, following suit of course, asks PARTNER TO "SWITCH" either to a lower ranks suit , or a DIFFERENT COLOR SUIT ETC ETC

How is this distinguished from a normal play of just following suit?

LOL , I hope I have read those other posts correctly about this and if you don't get the question I will re ask :-)

I will try When the dummy show its obvious that you should switch such as

the dummy has a singlton in the suit led or your looking at QJXX and you are leading A

Its kind of like this .... You make a lead and you see dummy and say "oh crap" now what do I lead and in your mind you say cmon pard I dont want to lead that again TELL me what to lead

Morgann, Gipp has basically explained the situation. When it is obvious that a continuation of a suit cannot be right, then a small card in that suit suggests a shift to the lower ranking suit, an unusually high card to the higher ranking suit. A middle card suggest that the suit be continued.

Anotyher place for prefernce signal as Rusty explauined in 13

is when you know your partner is going to ruff the size of the card tells him what to lead back for another ruff Say you have the ace of hearts... Spades are trump

and you know your parnter is trumping diamonds You hold J 3 so you lead back the J This is one I tend to forget to think about in my haste to give partner a ruff I see many advancers take the ace of Heart before sending the card to ruff

The Granovetters have a relatively easy book out called A SWITCH IN TIME in which a suit in dummy is deemed to be the OBVIOUS SHIFT according to 11 very obvious rules. Therefore, at trick 1 you discourage a continuation if you can stand the OBVIOUS SHIFT (OS), or you encourage if you can't stand the OS, or you play an unusually high card if you want the UN-OBVIOUS SHIFT (usually dummies best suit). There is only one case when you give suit preference at trick 1 and that is when trumps are led. This defensive system is used by many experts and is also used by the expert panel of solvers in the BRIDGE WORLD magazine. Playing in a regional tournament the bidding went 1c p 1s p // 3s p p p. Partner led the heart king promising the ace (we play rusinow) and dummy hit with s AQxx h xx d Kx c KQJT9. I held s Kxx h JTxxx d xxx c Ax. I signalled for the UN-OBVIOUS SHIFT with the heart jack and partner shifted to the club which I won and exited a club. When declarer took losing spade hook, I got partner in with the heart and got my club ruff. We were the only pair to get a plus on that hand in the whole field.

even tho this is a old thread[quite old] all the info ross gave is excellent.

what you and your partner deceide to play and in whch order is primary.

i find that newer players if they just play standard leads/discards ,were ahead of the game.

took me awhile to understand attitude/count ,so not surprising when a new player doesnt know.

i have 4 books on leads/discards,and basically they all give this same information.........

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