[gwnn]

We'd like to adopt 2/4 leads vs suits and no trump. Can someone give me the "best" agreements on leads and carding related to 2/4? My partner thinks that it's best to lead 4th best from xxxx or xxxxx, for example and I wouldn't really like that. Is there some kind of online source to see most important cases?

[ArtK78]

What do you mean by 2/4 leads? Second highest from bad holdings and 4th best from good holdings?

[gwnn]

The two basic situations are:

low from doubleton
4th from an honor (J? T??)

the points of discussion would be:

xxx? Hxx?
xxxx? xxxxx?
KJx? T9....?
HT9... ?

[ASkolnick]

Honestly, it would depend on the rest of my hand. In general, when you lead low, it implies either A) an honor or a desire for that suit to be returned.

A better example would be from xxxxx, which would you lead? Probably, low if I have a ton of entries, 2nd highest if not.

[ArtK78]

I have a friend who swears that leading low from a doubleton is the best method.

I don't see it, myself. I have seen some hands played by Polish players who lead low from a doubleton, and everytime I see them do it it works out badly.

But I don't have any experience with it personally.

[pclayton]

When I play 2/4 leads, the best holding I can hold with a 2nd best lead is Q8xx. Anything better gets 4th best.

I think 2/4 leaders lead 2nd from Hxx, but I haven't investigated the merits or ramifications of this.

[Codo]

I play 2./4. in different vartiations and I never saw the low lead of a doubleton beening worse then leading the high card. I dislike leading doubeltons, this leads often fail, but this is another point.

We lead 2. from Txxx or worse.
If we have to lead from K82 or similar we must decidewhether we should lie about the length and play the two or should we make it very difficult for partner to read and lead the 8. One partner prefered the first apporach, my actual partner the later.

I have no final descission what works better for me, because normaly the bidding gives you a clue and leads from Kxx aren`t high on my to do list anyway.

For us your other examples are no issues. You lead the T from T9xx and HT9x, low from KJx, 2. from xxx.

[Apollo81]

Vs NT we lead 2nd from xxxx, 4th from xxxxx. Judgement is possible when selecting other leads but normal for us is 2nd from Hxx and 4th from Hxxx. From partner's suit we lead as against suit contracts. In the ACBL it is annoying to prealert low from xx leads so we don't lead that way except in long matches: if we do then we lead high from 9x or higher and usually low from 8x or worse.

[andy_h]

From what was I brought up with (when I used to play 2/4) we always led 4th highest from an honour (J and T are honours) and 2nds from 4(+) small cards (vs both suit and NT). I was never taught though about leading 2nds from Hxx, I guess because we lead top from a doubleton rather than low.

I have no experience in low from doubleton leads, but saw Zmud-Balicki play it.
xxx? good old mud days
Hxx? low
xxxx? 2nd
xxxxx? 2nd
KJx? low
T9(x+)? T
HT9? T, HT9(x+) 4th

[brianshark]

In polish, I lead 4th highest from Hxxx(+) and 2nd from: xx, xxx, xxxx(+), Hxx. 3rd from Hhx and top from Hx. I find it's pretty neat.

Play whetever you want. There will always be some ambiguities for any lead system. You'll always know the subset of hands within which partner's lead must belong and use other clues to decide which.

[dcvetkov]

andy_h, on May 13 2008, 09:46 AM, said:

I have no experience in low from doubleton leads, but saw Zmud-Balicki play it.
xxx? good old mud days
Hxx? low
xxxx? 2nd
xxxxx? 2nd
KJx? low
T9(x+)? T
HT9? T, HT9(x+) 4th

This is probably very close. I dont have lot of experience in 2/4 to judge but there are players who live and die by it, and low from doubleton is one of the "must" requirements. Especially popular with Polish club players and some Bulgarians.
Whether it can claim some superiority, hard to say.

[rogerclee]

I would bid 3♣.

[Winstonm]

I was under the impression that the point of 2/4 leads is count, spot card length to be precise.

Second from odd number of spot cards, low from even number of spot cards.

From some holding like KJ852 the lead would be the 8, from KJ82, the 2.

[Codo]

Winstonm, on May 15 2008, 10:30 AM, said:

I was under the impression that the point of 2/4 leads is count, spot card length to be precise.

Second from odd number of spot cards, low from even number of spot cards.

From some holding like KJ852 the lead would be the 8, from KJ82, the 2.

just from the semantic:
how can the 8 from KJ852 be 2./4. ?

If you play 2./4. you play the 5 with no second thought.

[hotShot]

I think in basic 2/4 you play the 2nd of 2 or 3 cards and the 4th of any 4+ suit. This way partner can estimate your length.

In enhanced 2/4 this is combined with some sort of "attitude" signal, where playing a 4th card promises values in that suit. So you lead the 2nd of a weak suit, even if it's long.

There are other possible enhancements.

[wank]

oops clicked gwnn's link and necroed this. nm

[MFA]

We play 2nd/4th with no attitude, so always small from xxxx.
This is normal in my neighborhood.

We 'treat a 9 as an honour', so we lead 9 from 9x, and may choose the 9 from some sequences like 98x or H98x.

[peaceman]

Winstonm, on May 14 2008, 08:30 PM, said:

I was under the impression that the point of 2/4 leads is count, spot card length to be precise.

Second from odd number of spot cards, low from even number of spot cards.

From some holding like KJ852 the lead would be the 8, from KJ82, the 2.

note on your tag line: Bertie's style of liberalism applied particularly to his relations to women : )

[aguahombre]

rogerclee, on May 14 2008, 05:32 PM, said:

I would bid 3♣.

good answer...I wonder which string it was intended for.

[Vampyr]

MFA, on Jan 9 2010, 12:20 AM, said:

We play 2nd/4th with no attitude, so always small from xxxx.

I think that this whole thread highlights a problem with using specialised terminology. In MFA's area they play "second and fourth" leads as above; in England 2nd & 4th generally means 2nd from a poor suit and top of a doubleton; in Poland and other places in Europe it means leading low from a doubleton. Best, I think, to just give a quick rundown of exactly what your leads are (or have a well-marked convention card for the opponent to refer to).