[rbforster]

Along the way of the opponents bidding to 3NT, your partner shows a suit (5+ typically) while you pass throughout. You are on lead.

Sample auction
1♦-1♥-(1♠)
2N-3N

From all of these holdings, I would normally lead lowest

Hxx
xxx
xxxx

What card do you play on the 2nd trick of partner's suit? How can he tell which of these you might hold, and hence whether declarer will have 3 or 4 cards in his suit?

For example, dummy has a singleton and partner's honor holds the first trick. He continues with a 2nd honor, taken by declarer's A. When partner gets in again, there may be a finessing position in the suit if declarer has 4 cards and you've lead from 3 (in which case continuing the suit gives away an extra unavailable trick). Alternatively, if declarer has only 3 cards and you've lead from 4, partner can clear the suit with a continuation and set up the rest of his suit.

Are there any general agreements about how to follow to the 2nd trick to separate these possibilities? If you treat this as a count situation (and aren't unblocking on the 2nd trick), does the card you play depend on whether you play standard or upsidedown count?

[Codo]

Which card you lead depends on your system.

If you chosse att. lead, you lead low in the first example, high in the other two.
PD cannot judge your length, but if you agree ón attitude leads, you decided that length signals are not your top priority and you must life with it.

If you play 3/5, 2./4. or something like that, pd can read your length easily from your second card. You simply do not lead the lowest from all your three examples, so no problem here too.


If you really always lead the lowest, pd cannot find it out.
But why should you?

[rbforster]

Codo, on Jan 21 2008, 07:56 AM, said:

If you really always lead the lowest, pd cannot find it out.
But why should you?

My question is which card you play on the second trick, after you lead low (attitude I guess) on the first trick. You'll have at least the choice of 2+ cards to play on the second round and I'm wondering what that choice means.

[whereagles]

Usually one gives count over the residue at trick 2. That would mean, in your case when dummy has a singleton,

H32 --> 2, H (unblock), 3
432 --> 2, 4, 3 playing standard or 2, 3, 4 playing UDCA
5432 --> 2, 5, 4 standard or 2, 3, 4 UDCA

[skjaeran]

Rob F, on Jan 21 2008, 07:04 PM, said:

Codo, on Jan 21 2008, 07:56 AM, said:

If you really always lead the lowest, pd cannot find it out.
But why should you?

My question is which card you play on the second trick, after you lead low (attitude I guess) on the first trick. You'll have at least the choice of 2+ cards to play on the second round and I'm wondering what that choice means.

Agree on a different lead style in partners suit. Leading lowest from all three holdings is incomprehensible (to me at least).

[skjaeran]

whereagles, on Jan 21 2008, 07:12 PM, said:

Usually one gives count over the residue at trick 2. That would mean, in your case when dummy has a singleton,

H32 --> 2, H (unblock), 3
432 --> 2, 4, 3 playing standard or 2, 3, 4 playing UDCA
5432 --> 2, 5, 4 standard or 2, 3, 4 UDCA

Agree with H32

For me the carding would be the same playing standard and UDCA, since I play present count playing standard and original count playing UDCA.

But this would never be an issue in partners suit, since I'd never agree to lead lowest from all holdings.

[rbforster]

Ok, I understand the count principles on the 2nd card. Of course "standard count" is consistent with the often unblock of a high card on trick 2, so I wasn't sure if this was the default carding regardless of whether you play UDCA vs Std count (since presumably you unblock whenever you need to with priority over count).

skaeran, on Jan 21 2008, 01:23 PM, said:

I'd never agree to lead lowest from all holdings.

If you have a better set of agreements for leading partner's unsupported suit, I'd be happy to hear them.

I lead high from a doubleton in partner's suit, which is often all the cards I have and is often necessary for unblocking purposes (especially from Hx). If you lead a high card from any of the above 3-4 holdings in addition to from doubletons, I'd think there's a serious danger of confusing partner about your length (2-4) in a way he's unlikely to be able to read and will often get wrong.

[cherdano]

We lead 3/5 in partner's suit.

[skjaeran]

cherdano, on Jan 22 2008, 05:06 AM, said:

We lead 3/5 in partner's suit.

As do we.