Legalbridgesignals

July20,2016

Bridgelecture– intermediate

Whatarethesignalsfor?

Show the partner where your valuesare (or aren’t)

Give information about the shape ofyour hand

In general: help the partner to make the right decisions!

Commonsignalsincontractbridge:UpsideDownCountandAttitude(UDCA)What? When? How?Attitude On partner lead Low: encourages,

High: discourages

Attitudesignals

Shows whether you like partner’s lead:

Low – encourage, High – discourage

Lead is ♠K. Partner follows with:

a) ♠2

b)♠9

What does it mean?

♠A92♠J92

♠982

♠AJ4

Commonsignalsincontractbridge:UpsideDownCountandAttitude(UDCA)What? When? How?Attitude On partner lead Low: encourages,

High: discouragesCount On opponent suit

(generally )Low-high: even,High-low: odd

Countsignals You show partner how many cards you have in a suit: Low-High: even count, High-low: odd count

Declarer plays ♦5 to dummy’s ♦KPartner plays:

a) ♦4

b) ♦8

c) ♦6,7

What does it mean?

♦4♦84♦8♦864

Harder to read

Commonsignalsincontractbridge:UpsideDownCountandAttitude(UDCA)What? When? How?Attitude On partner lead Low: encourages,

High: discouragesCount On opponent suit

(generally )Low-high: even,High-low: odd

Suit preference On discards, when giving a ruff, whenever opportunity arises

LavinthalLow: lower suit,High: higher suit

Suitpreference‐ Lavinthal

Shows which suit partner should play:

Low – lower suit, High – higher suit

Lead is ♦A. Partner follows with:

a) ♦4

b) ♦10

What does it mean?

Suggests club switch

Suggests heart switch

Example:Board1East leads ♥A, West encourages with ♥2.

Defense cashes three ♥ tricks and exit with a spade.

Encourage the partner’s lead, take three ♥ tricks and then just wait for the ♦K trick.

Example:Board2South leads ♠A and North discourages with ♠9

South has to switch to avoid giving trick to ♠Q

If North has ♦K, then it will win a trick anyway. So go for the clubs!

Example:Board3West leads with ♦Q. Declarer wins and plays clubs. It is essential for West to duck clubs exactly once!How can it be done? With count signal from the East! ♣8 as first discard indicates odd number of cards.

Spade more instead of Heart

I1

Slide 11

I1 Ilze, 20/07/2016

Example:Board4North leads ♦Q. South discourages with ♦8.

Declarer plays clubs. North ducks, South shows doubleton with ♣2. North continues ducking.

On third club South discards ♥10 to show spade switch.

Whichsignalstouse?

Doesn’t matter so much as long asthey are:

The legal ones

The same ones as your partner!