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Discards and Signals etc in Defence - The Basics |
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I have been asked to cover the basics of defensive signals and play. Now there are all sorts of agreements so I'll just cover the very basics of the commonest approach here. |
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Leading |
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Top from all honour sequences. So A from AK, K from KQ etc. |
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Low card promises an honour. So 3 from Q73 etc. |
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Do not underlead an ace in a suit contract. |
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The lead of an ace generally promises the king. |
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Suppose that you hold QJ10 in a suit. If you wish to lead this suit, then it's the Q. If somebody else leads the suit then play the 10. So top of a sequence when leading but bottom when following suit. |
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Encouraging (or discouraging) partner. |
HELD |
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Let's start with the attitude signal. When partner leads a suit it is often beneficial to let him know if you like the suit (and want him to continue) or if you don't like it. The most common approach is to play a Highish card to Encourage and a Low card to Discourage, so HELD. For example, if you hold Q92 in a suit and partner leads the ace then play the 9 as you want him to continue. If you hold J92 then play the 2 to discourage. |
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Now many players play upside down attidude (i.e. low to encourage). This is something that you and your partner need to discuss. |
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Discarding – Suit preference. |
Lavinthal (aka McKenney) |
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When you are defending and cannot follow suit, then you have to discard something. It is often best to convey some sort of information to your partner with this discard and there are various schemes. One of the best and most commonly used is Lavinthal, also known as McKenney. The most important point is that you DO NOT discard in a suit that you like, but discard from one of the other suits. There are two remaining suits and the size of your discard indicates which of these remaining two suits you like, a high/middle card indicates the higher ranking and a low card the lower ranking. |
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For example, you are discarding on ♥ 's and would like partner to lead a ♦ . Discard either a low ♣ (so asks for the lowest ranking of ♠ 's and ♦ 's) or discard a high ♠ (so asks for the highest ranking of ♣ 's and ♦ 's). Note that you always have a choice of two suits to discard from and can usually make the signal clear. When you are defending it is important to take special note of partner's first discard – that will tell you which suit he likes. |
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I have witnessed countless occurrences of people throwing away a trick in defence (especially in NT contracts) by discarding in a suit to indicate that they like that suit – that system really sucks. Don't discard from a suit you like, play McKenney (Lavinthal). |
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| ♠ |
A1063 |
Lavinthal Suit preference is also used in other situations. Suppose that you are on lead defending a ♥ contract. You lead the ♦A and get an encouraging ♦9 from partner. So you continue with the ♦K and he plays the ♦2. So he encouraged. Suppose that you know from the bidding that partner is probably ruffing the next ♦ ; which ♦ do you lead? The answer is the ♦8. This is Lavinthal and asks partner to lead back a ♠ (the ♦3 would ask for a ♣ ). |
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74 |
| ♦ |
AK83 |
| ♣ |
873 |
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There are a number of alternative defensive discarding systems. Odds and Evens is certainly one of the better ones and it also partially includes Lavinthal.
But possibly the most popular signalling system is what is called ‘Standard'. It is popular in America and on the internet and is very simple (but not very precise). A high discard says that you like the suit and a low discard says that you dislike the suit. Many players these days play ‘inverted Standard' – so a low discard says you like the suit and a high discard shows dislike for the suit.
| Now I don't really like Standard signals - all too often you cannot afford a high card in the suit that you like, and this often gives a trick away against a No Trump contract. So discarding from a suit that you don't like is very often more sensible. A continuation of this theory leads to Distributional Signals. Playing these, you discard from a suit that you don't like and a high card signifies an even number of cards in that suit and an low card signifies an odd number. These distributional signals help partner to get a count of the hand and are further explained in "Secrets of Expert Defence" by Tony Forrester and David Bird. An excellent book for the intermediate-advanced player. |
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Other signalling conventions such as DODS and Revan are pretty useless. |
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Sometimes it is very important for partner to know how many cards you have in a suit (and thus how many declarer has). |
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Suppose you are defending a 3NT contract and see ♦KQJ1098 on the table but no outside entry. Declarer plays a low card from hand (so partner has the ace) and you hold ♦72, which card do you play? The answer is that it is really important to give count in this kind of situation so that partner knows how long to hold up his ace. You should play the ♦7 – highest from an even number of cards. If you held ♦742 you must play the ♦2 to show an odd number. |
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It is good practice to always give count when declarer is playing a suit. This helps partner to get a picture of who has what. Of course this may help declarer, and more advanced players know when to lie about their suit lengths - when the information is more important to declarer than to partner. |
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A word about Upside Down Attitude |
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There are a number of different signalling techniques, but there are three distinct types that are independent . It appears that one of our top players got confused when his partner wanted to play ‘upside down signals' – (what his partner meant was upside down attitude signals). |
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| (a) |
Telling partner about your holding in a suit when he leads it (some give attitude, some give count). |
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Telling partner about your holding in a suit when declarer leads it (give count if it's going to help partner |
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and not help declarer.). |
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Discard Signals. When you discard (say on a suit declarer is leading). Then your first discard should tell |
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partner what suit you like and don't like – I recommend Lavinthal (McKenny) as the ‘club standard'. |
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These 3 are largely independent of each other and a very large number of players in this club prefer ‘upside-down attitude' – i.e. low to encourage for (a) above. Indeed, I also prefer this scheme as it makes more sense than throwing a high card from a suit that you like. It is common in Europe but not in America . Some players also play upside down count but I don't advice this and see no point. |
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Anyway, if someone wants to play upside down attitude for (1) that that does not affect discards – he still plays count at (b) and Lavinthal at (c) in the normal way and this is very common in this club. |
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And note that if you do decide to play upside down attitude and say partner leads ♦A against a ♠ contract, then holding ♦Q72 you play the two to encourage; holding ♦72 you still play the ♦2 to encourage (you want a ruff). Some people get confused here – this is not count, but attitude, and so in this situation you play low from a doubleton. Of course if you do find this confusing then you can also play upside down count! |
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The Smith Echo is used when defending against a No Trump contract. It is perhaps a rather advanced convention but established pairs may wish to have a look at it. |
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Pattaya Bridge Club - |
www.pattayabridge.com |
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