[Shugart23]

Here's two we like.....

1) Against a suit contract, Your partner leads a suit in which you have both the Ace and the King. If you play the Ace and then lead the king, that's a suit preference for the higher ranking non-trump suit whilst if you first play the King and then lead the Ace that's suit preference for the lower ranking suit

2) Against a suit contract, you lead the K showing the Ace....(or Ace showing the King if that's your style) and partner plays the Queen. Partner either just played a singleton or promised the J. You can now underlead your high honor with a sut preference signal and be assured partner will take the trick and hopefully catch your request for the return lead

I'm wondering if anyone has additional techniques

[inquiry]

You might want to consider some of these.

• Trump sui preference. When following with a low spot card against a suit contract, a high-low sequence suggest values in a higher suit, low=high either no additional values or values in a lower suit
• Instead of smith echo, at notrump, you might agree to play first suit declarer leads you play low to show values in a lower ranking suit or no additional value to show, you play high-low to show values in a higher ranking suit.
• If you generally give ATTITUDE when partner leads a suit (instead of count). If you have already requested a lead of a suit (say via a double of an artificial bid, or by some previous S/P signal, then give count if you are not trying to win the trick
• At a suit contract, if dummy has sufficient trumps and a singleton or void in the suit partner leads at trick one, give S/P signal to locate outside values
• If partner leads a blind suit against notrump and dummy's holding makes it clear there is no future in that suit, also give S/P
• If dummy has a long suit that is a source of tricks with no entry in any other suit, the spot card third hand plays should be "count" in dummy'e long suit. We had a thread on this several years back, it is called either off-suit count signal or side suit count. I made the author of the convention a little angry by calling it by the wrong name. My recollection is the name is one of those two.
• Even if you play attitude at trick one on partner's lead, if dummy is winning the trick with the JACK or lower card, then signal count.
• If as signaller you are known, or should be known from bidding and dummy, to hold a long suit in the suit lead, then you MUST use the following signals. A middle size spot card is encouraging (attitude), a low spot card is both discouraging and S/P for a lower suit, a very high spot card is both discouraging and S/P for higher suit. This remains true even if there is a singleton in dummy. I was worried that this one violates the dual meaning carding, but I asked about it last year in the laws forum and it was agreed this was legal.
• If partner is going to remain on lead at trick two and from bidding and dummy it is clear that he must switch, then your signal at trick one should be S/P regardless if you first count is usually attitude or count.
• Make use of alarm clock plays. A mild alarm clock would be leading the King from AK doubleton if your normal agreement is Ace from AK, or your earlier example of when partner leads the suit and you win Ace from AK then king to show values in a higher suit. But more normally, an alarm clock play is a defensive play intended to alert partner to an unusual situation. It could include the play (or discard) of an unexpected honor, or giving what will turn out to be surely a false count signal when count is required.
• The default card from a sequence when partner leads the suit is low (from QJT, playing the Jack is OK).
• When partner leads a suit, and next hand wins, we play TOP from sequences, to signal the next lower card.
• In addition to when partner leads suit and we have the AK (as discussed earlier) when we win A from AK and then play the King in addition to the concept that is shows suit preference for a higher suit, another useful meaning is asking partner to unblock the suit. From the bidding and dummy and his own hand, partner is suppose to be able to work out which signal you meant to send. , A corollary is when we play these honors in normal sequence, we deny S/P for the higher suit. S/P for higher suit also applies if we win Ace from AK in fourth seat on suit declarer plays.
• When playing from a longer sequence on a suit partner played, the order of play is suit preference. For instance with KQJ(x) with ACE in dummy and partner leads the suit, dummy plays low.
  Win the King and play the Queen – preference for the highest suit
  Win the Queen and play the King – preference for the middle suit
  Win the Jack and play the Queen – preference for the lowest side suit
  Win the Jack and play the King – no preference (normal play)
• The default card from a sequence when opponents lead the suit is highest card from two touching honors, lowest from three touching honors. With three touching cards, you can give S/P by:
  play 2nd then highest is S/P for a higher suit
  play lowest then 2nd lowest is S/P for lower suit
  Play highest is not S/P (normal play)
• Some useful leading signals.
  When leading from a known five card or longer suit, lead 4th best from precisely five, lead low from six or more
  When leading in partners bid suit, lead low from three small UNLESS we supported partner, in which case we lead high from three small.
  If partner has signaled S/P in a suit and you lead it, if you lead small card you are promising a fitting honor.
  If your partner leads low at trick one, gets in, and leads low in a second suit, return the second suit, nor the first one. But if he returns a high spot card in the second suit, return the first suit.
  Ace from Ace-King applies only to the first trick.

[ArtK78]

Shugart23, on 2013-July-22, 11:26, said:

Here's two we like.....

1) Against a suit contract, Your partner leads a suit in which you have both the Ace and the King. If you play the Ace and then lead the king, that's a suit preference for the higher ranking non-trump suit whilst if you first play the King and then lead the Ace that's suit preference for the lower ranking suit

2) Against a suit contract, you lead the K showing the Ace....(or Ace showing the King if that's your style) and partner plays the Queen. Partner either just played a singleton or promised the J. You can now underlead your high honor with a sut preference signal and be assured partner will take the trick and hopefully catch your request for the return lead

I'm wondering if anyone has additional techniques

The second is entirely normal.

The first is nice if suit preference is all that is important in the hand. But suppose that you would like to let partner know that your AK is doubleton by playing the A followed by the K? If that is possible AND RELEVANT, it should take precedence over suit preference.

Not to belittle your comments, but I suspect that anyone who plays the game above the novice level would be using these techniques without discussion.

[ArtK78]

inquiry, on 2013-July-22, 14:10, said:

Even if you play attitude at trick one on partner's lead, if dummy is winning the trick with the JACK or lower card, then signal count.

There are exceptions. Suppose in notrump partner leads the 2. Dummy holds JT or the equivalent. In third seat you hold Axx or Kxx and no outside trick. It may be correct to encourage so that partner continues the suit on gaining the lead if the layout of the suit is like this:

---

[PhilKing]

Upvote Inquiry ++++.

[Fluffy]

Since we normally lead King asking for unblock with AKJ, KQ10 and KQJ against NT I have agreed with partner to cancel unblocks and turn to attitude when dummy has singleton or void, hasn't come up much but I think it is an improvement.

[Zelandakh]

inquiry, on 2013-July-22, 14:10, said:

7. Even if you play attitude at trick one on partner's lead, if dummy is winning the trick with the JACK or lower card, then signal count.

Is this standard? I read somewhere to give count if Dummy plays the queen too.

inquiry, on 2013-July-22, 14:10, said:

8.If as signaller you are known, or should be known from bidding and dummy, to hold a long suit in the suit lead, then you MUST use the following signals. A middle size spot card is encouraging (attitude), a low spot card is both discouraging and S/P for a lower suit, a very high spot card is both discouraging and S/P for higher suit. This remains true even if there is a singleton in dummy. I was worried that this one violates the dual meaning carding, but I asked about it last year in the laws forum and it was agreed this was legal.

Must is surely too strong here. You could also play (std) high = encouraging; mid = high suit; low = low suit or (udca) low = encouraging; min = low suit; high = high suit

inquiry, on 2013-July-22, 14:10, said:

When playing from a longer sequence on a suit partner played, the order of play is suit preference. For instance with KQJ(x) with ACE in dummy and partner leads the suit, dummy plays low.
Win the King and play the Queen – preference for the highest suit
Win the Queen and play the King – preference for the middle suit
Win the Jack and play the Queen – preference for the lowest side suit
Win the Jack and play the King – no preference (normal play)

I think slightly better would be:

J->K = no preference
J->Q = low suit
Q->K = not high suit (and suggests not holding the jack)
Q->J = middle suit
K->Q = high suit (and suggests not holding the jack)
K->J = high suit

since it may not be clear to partner who holds the jack if we play KQ on the first 2 tricks. Then K->Q->J and Q->K->J in situations where we can play all 3 cards can then be used as alarm clock signals.


This is a great list by the way. Have you considered stickying it in the I/A forum (or creating a stickied thread with links to useful threads)?