Chapter 4

Leads and Signals

Often, signaling is a distraction.  It is easy to write signaling rules.  More often than not a signal is only a suggestion to partner.  Signaling is not the end in itself.

The important element of defense is to visualize the unseen hands.  If you are only going to do one thing on a hand, it should be visualize rather than figuring the correct signaling card.  It is difficult to write a set of general visualization rules, and to create good visualization problems.

In a single game around the time I wrote this chapter, I counted eight deals where the opponents misdefended, and one deal where we misdefended.  All of the misdefenses were solo errors by one of the partners.  Defensive signals had nothing to do with any of the errors.  Perhaps one or two of the errors were excusable.

Your leads and signals contain information.  We should think about what is the most useful information, and use that approach.  The three types of messages coded into signals are attitude, suit preference, and count.  Both attitude and suit preference can be ephemeral.  Your attitude can be positive, negative, or neutral.  If your lead shows or denies an honor, then your lead contains an attitude message.  On some deals you do not have a suit preference, and on others both suits are okay.  Count is straightforward, but it is rare that count in a side suit led by declarer is useful.

The standard signaling rules are, I think, attitude when you lead the suit, count when they lead the suit, and suit preference sometimes replacing attitude or count.  Normal count is high-low with an even number in a side suit, and low-high with an even number of trumps.  The count card is current count.  Count in a partnership can be rare to frequent to mandatory.

Granovetter's Obvious Shift Principle codes more into an attitude signal.  The encouraging signal can mean

• Continue the suit because we have tricks in it or I want a ruff. 
• Do not blow tricks by now leading the obvious shift suit. 
• Switch to the non-obvious suit. 
• Get a trump on the table. 

The Granovetter's rules for showing count, page 10 of his book, are: 

1. With a doubleton, after partner's lead of the A-K versus suit — when we want to obtain a ruff. 
2. At the six-level, after the lead of the king.
3. Against notrump after the lead of an ace (from A-K-J-10-x). 
4. When helping partner to hold up an ace or king.
5. When cashing out and the high cards are known. 

Cases 1, 2, and 3 apply to the opening lead.  Case 4 applies when they lead the suit.  Case 5 is vague.  It can lead to the after the deal question: "How was I to know that you knew that I knew that high cards were known?"  Did I miss an "I knew"? 

The order that you, as defender, play cards in a suit, depends on the contract, and whether you are leading the suit, following to partner's lead, or following to declarer's lead.  Let me paraphrase John Lowenthal:  You should load the correct way to play all card combinations as defender into your database.  You then fish them out of the database and load them into the foreground window as applicable.

Leads:

• Fourth highest. 
• 10 and 9 = zero or two higher. 
• Top or second high from nothing. 
• Queen from K-Q-T at notrump if I want partner to drop the jack. 
• (Tend to) defend aggressively. 

Signals versus notrump: 

• Switch-in-time attitude. 
• Foster echo, i.e. when following suit you normally play second highest.  If partner really blew the lead, you may play lowest.  Foster echo is a member of the "come on or stop" — "switch in time" family.  Foster echo defines the neutral play as following suit with your second highest card. 
• Smith echo, where a high card shows a positive attitude about the opening lead suit.  (We claim to be using this.) 
• Standard high-low when they lead the suit (rare). 
• High-low discards for that suit, and up-the-line for a different suit. 
• Suit preference signals. 

Signals versus suit: 

• Switch-in-time attitude. 
• Standard count signals (rare).  High-low in trumps shows an odd number of trumps and the desire to ruff. 
• High-low discards for that suit, and up-the-line for a different suit. 
• Suit preference signals. 

The lists are approximately in order.  Attitude signals are given before suit preference signals.

When I discuss deals, I assume these rules.  I am not going to give a second analysis in terms of a different set of rules, but that analysis may be part of our discussion.  I would like a brief written summary of your rules.  I am willing that we have a dialogue on your leading and signaling rules, but I am not interested in a long monologue on why your rules are best.

Lead rules that give information to partner also are helpful to declarer, and we have to decide who gets the most help.  A jack by my rules denies a higher honor, and declarer will play A-Q-x in dummy opposite x-x-x correctly.  If I lead the ten and you see the jack, then you, as partner or declarer, know I do not have a higher card in the suit.  If you can lead the jack or ten with one higher, then both of them have to guess whether or not you have the ace or king.  You have to decide who gets the most help from ten-nine equals zero or two higher.

Similar discussions are possible on ace from ace-king, fourth highest from air, and third and fifth highest.

At Kansas City

• In the daily bulletin, an irrelevant to the deal, comment was "We both gave false count in hearts." 
• I also heard; "David never pays any attention to any card lower than a seven." 
• Partner was putting too much effort into choosing the correct card throughout the defense.  I told him I never pay attention.  There was one deal after that where giving count mattered. 

"Bid With Imagination", by David Bird with Geir Helgomo, is a good book on declarer play and defensive play.  Deals are mostly European in origin, where, it seems, third and fifth leads, and count on partner's lead are the norm.  A common theme revolves about intercepting those signals.

Page 85:

	A K 9 4
	8 6 4
	K 9 5
	K Q 3
J T 8 5		7
A K T 2		Q 8 3
T 7 4 3		J 8 2
A		T 8 6 5 4 2
	Q 6 3 2
	J 9 7
	A Q 6
	J 9 7
West	North	East	South
1	Dble	2	2
All Pass

"West led the ace of clubs, East playing the five, and switched to the 4 (playing third and fifth leads).  Geir won the diamond switch with dummy's king, crossed to the queen of trumps, and led a second trump.  When West produced the eight, Geir took a deep finesse of dummy's nine!  East showed out and declarer now had nine tricks for a near top." 

"...  Geir's play had been based entirely on logic, however.  East's club bid, combined with his count signal of the five, made it clear that clubs were 1-6.  West's third and fifth 4 switch, combined with East's count signal of the two, showed that diamonds were 4-3.  If West held a five-card major he would have opened in that suit rather than on a 4-card diamond suit.  If followed that West's shape was 4-4-4-1.  Many bridge players go through their careers, scarcely noticing any card lower than a 10." 

Winning nine tricks was the coup de gras of an auction that avoided 3NT.  On this side of the pond, playing and making 2 would be a top.  One should not jeopardize the plus unless one is 110% certain.  The diamond switch could be won in either hand.  Declarer won it in dummy so East could signal his count.  The count signals only helped declarer.  East play on the club lead should be a switch-in-time play for diamonds or hearts.  After a 1 opening bid, a high club by East suggests a heart and a low club suggests a diamond.  After that start, East-West must either grab their heart tricks and then a club ruff, or absolutely conceal their hand patterns.  This is not an indictment of third and fifth.  Fourth highest will lead to the same exposure of the hand patterns.  This is an indictment of routinely playing the "correct" card.

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