[strong 1c]

Have never played them but think we will experiment with. As I understand them, discard a card in the suit you don't want led, I high discard suggest leading the higher ranking suit (not trump) and a low discard suggest leading the lower ranking suit...If hearts are trump, a high spade is looking for a club lead . Assuming this is all correct, am I correct in thinking a discard of a 6,7, or 8 should be interpreted as having absolutely no meaning ? If that is correct, could it instead be interpreted as wanting that suit led ?

Also is there a difference between Lavinthal and Revolving Lavinthal ? I've heard both terms

[DavidKok]

Your start of the explanation is (almost) correct, but when you get to the 6, 7 or 8 you are missing the mark. The meaning of the signal depends on which other cards have been played or can be seen. You discard the lowest or highest card you can afford to let go, and hope/assume that partner can resolve your intentions. The exact spot value isn't critical, the relative value compared to what you likely hold is.
Sometimes partner will misinterpret your signal, but that's true for any method.

Lastly I'm familiar with 'Revolving Discards', not 'Revolving Lavinthal'. When playing Revolving Discards you wrap the suits cyclically ♠ > ♥ > ♦ > ♣ > ♠. Like Lavinthal, you exclude the suit pitched and the one asked for, but now a high card asks for the next higher suit and a low card asks for the next lower suit. E.g. pitching a spade on a diamond trick, a high spade asks for a club (above spades, in this revolving scheme) and a low card asks for a heart.

P.S. note my little correction - you state the trump suit can't be asked for, but normally instead the suit led to the current trick is excluded instead. This way you could potentially signal a preference for the trump suit to indicate you have no preference between the other suits.

[awm]

I agree with David's point that it's about the relative spots (i.e. highest card always signals higher suit) and not an assignment of specific spots.

There also seems to be some ambiguity in the definition of Lavinthal. The way Elianna and I play is that the discard says nothing about the suit discarded and is merely suit preference among the other suits. So for example, if declarer is running clubs and I pitch a high spade, it signals for hearts. If I pitch a low spade, it signals for diamonds. My discard of a spade says nothing about my holding in spades.

However, there do seem to be people who play the way described in the original post (thus a high spade would deny holding anything in spades as well as showing preference for hearts over diamonds).

[strong 1c]

Your description and what I write are definitely quite different. Today we tried it for the first time. After the first 6 cards played , I had a low diamond and 6 spades to the ace and king. Trumps were hearts and on the next card he led a club or heart. ( I don’t recall) so was ‘stuck’ for the pitch

Maybe what I thought was lavinthal. is really revolving discards, it’s cousin

[strong 1c]

Adam. In the example you gave, if diamonds are trump he is running clubs and if you pitch a low spade, I assume here partner should use common sense if you are calling for a trump lead ( if possible). Is that correct? And if generally you likely wouldn’t be calling for trump lead, do you give any meaning to a low spade vs the high one?

[awm]

strong 1c, on 2026-March-24, 13:11, said:

Adam. In the example you gave, if diamonds are trump he is running clubs and if you pitch a low spade, I assume here partner should use common sense if you are calling for a trump lead ( if possible). Is that correct? And if generally you likely wouldn’t be calling for trump lead, do you give any meaning to a low spade vs the high one?

It must be pretty late in the hand if declarer has already pulled trump and has also played enough rounds in a second suit that I'm discarding. Much of the time we're not signalling at this point in the defence, but if somehow we are, we default to attitude signals (UDCA for what it's worth).

[bluenikki]

DavidKok, on 2026-March-24, 07:14, said:

Sometimes partner will misinterpret your signal, but that's true for any method.

Also, sometimes you don't have a free choice of which suit to discard.

Playing with a pickup, defending a notrump contract, I had 4-4 in the majors, as did dummy on my right. My diamonds were JT9, but I had to discard one on the third club. Partner thought I must be playing upside down without profiling it.

[paulg]

strong 1c, on 2026-March-24, 07:25, said:

Maybe what I thought was lavinthal. is really revolving discards, it's cousin

Your original post describes what I think are revolving discards.

In Lavinthal, typically known as McKenny in the UK, is hearts are trumps then pitching a high spade asks for diamonds and a low spade asks for clubs.

And 'asks' is taken by most club players as a demand, so ignoring it may get a comment. Whereas it should show where your values are so that partner can make an educated guess at how to defend.

Finally, I do think it is a good thing for partnerships to change their signalling methods and/or leading style occasionally as it gets you to focus on the cards played again.

[blackshoe]

paulg, on 2026-March-26, 02:43, said:

And 'asks' is taken by most club players as a demand

It is the purpose of defensive signalling either to suggest a line of defense to partner or to give him information he can use to choose the line he thinks best. Those who think defensive signals are commands to partner do not understand the purpose of signalling.

[mycroft]

One of the key "not a demand" signal is "here's where my entry is, *after* we set up my suit. Please don't take it out early."

It's a hard one to learn to read, especially when people get leant on "why didn't you lead what I asked for?" for so long. But it is a key one.