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Attitude Signals

What Is an Attitude Signal?

An attitude signal tells partner whether you want her to continue the suit she has led. It is not a demand, just a suggestion. When we give an attitude signal, we will either be encouraging a continuation of the suit or discouraging a continuation.

 

There are two main reasons we will want partner to continue a suit:

1. We have high cards in the suit, so we want to cash those tricks or knock out declarer’s stoppers in the suit to set up winners.
2. We have shortness and want a ruff. Obviously this only applies in a suit contract.

Generally we will discourage when neither of these situations apply. If we have xxx in the suit partner leads, we have no strong interest in partner’s continuing the suit: we have no high cards to set up and no chance of a ruff. So we will discourage. If partner has KQJT, he’s not going to pay us much attention and will continue the suit. Remember that signals are not commands; they are just our input on what’s going on.

 

General Guidelines for Encouraging Attitude Signals

When partner leads an honor, she usually has the honor beneath (we lead the highest of touching honors). So we are going to encourage when we have either the card above her sequence or the card below it. If partner leads the ♣ K, she probably has the queen, so when partner shows the ♣ KQ, we will encourage if we have the ♣ A or the ♣ J.

 

Partner’s lead	Expected holding	Encourage from	Discourage from
Ace	AK	Qxx(x) ; xx (against suit contract)	xx, xxx(x), JTxx
King	KQ	Axx(x), Jxx(x)	xx, xxx(x)
Queen	QJ	Kxx(x), Txx(x); Axx(x) (it may be right to win the ace at trick 1)	xx, xxx(x)
Jack	JT, KJT	Qxx(x) , KQx(x), Axx(x), Kxx(x)	xx, xxx(x)

How to Encourage – Standard vs. Upside Down

There are two basic carding agreements: Standard and Upside Down. In Standard carding, playing high-low is encouraging; in Upside Down carding, playing low-high is encouraging. It’s important to remember that signaling is a two-step process: partner might have to guess what you mean after the first card you play, but your signal is not complete until you play a second card. So an 8 is not necessarily high; if you follow with the 9, it was low. A high-low play is called an “Echo.”

 

Let’s say you hold ♠ Q73 and partner leads the ace of spades, presumably from AK. You want to encourage spades, since you have the queen. If you were playing Standard carding, you’d play the seven; if playing Upside Down, you’d play the three. It’s that simple.

 

Sometimes you’re not going to have the spots that you’d like. This happens whether you’re playing Standard or Upside Down. Remember that “high” and “low” are relative. If you’re dealt ♣ 5432, the five is your highest spot; if you’re dealt ♣ 987, the seven is your lowest. Sometimes we have to do our best with what we’re dealt and hope partner can figure it out. So never assume that a three or four is low or an eight is high; take a look at the spots you can see and figure out if partner might have a problem.

 

In the example above, partner leads the ace of spades and you want to encourage holding ♠ Qxx. You’ll be in a pinch playing Standard carding if you hold ♠ Q32 or holding ♠ Q98 if playing Upside Down. All you can do is give the proper signal (your highest or lowest) and hope partner can work things out.

 

Is either Standard or Upside Down better than the other? They both work fine. Upside Down has a slight theoretical advantage because in a suit you like, high spot cards are often important. For example, if partner leads a diamond against 3NT and you hold ♦ A932 and dummy holds ♦ Q854, that nine could be an important card, so you can’t really afford to play it; you have to play the three and hope partner figures things out. But there are plenty of times where Standard carding works better, especially when you have to give a discouraging signal; it’s nice to hold onto nice spot cards, even in a suit you aren’t wild about. It’s a choice you and your partner need to make. But remember this: the choice of whether to play Standard or Upside Down carding makes very little difference; what matters is knowing what your signals mean so you can communicate effectively with your partner. So use what you’re comfortable with. We’re going to use Standard carding in this course.

 

One important concept in signaling is to make the clearest signal possible. When you have touching spot cards, from a technical perspective it doesn’t matter which you play – they’re equivalent in value. But we make the most demonstrative signal, trying to make partner’s life easier. Say we want to encourage diamonds holding ♦ Q7654. All our spot cards are equivalent, but partner doesn’t know that. So we play the seven, the highest in the sequence. Similarly, if we were going to discourage from ♥ 8754, we would play the four, though the five has the same value to us.

 

Occasionally we will not be able to make the most demonstrative signal possible because we need to preserve a high spot card that could become important in the suit. Say I’m going to pitch a club from ♣ KJ972 and dummy in front of me has ♣ AQ84. The nine is likely going to be an important card – needed to cover dummy’s eight. So I signal with the seven instead.

 

When Do Attitude Signals Apply?

Generally, we’re going to give attitude signals only when partner leads a suit for the first time. This could be on opening lead or in the middle of a hand. Here’s a very important rule to remember:

 

Bridge always comes before signaling.

 

That means giving an attitude signal takes a back seat to technical bridge plays, such as third-hand high. Only when we have a choice of spot cards that aren’t going to affect the outcome of the trick do we worry about signaling.

 

If partner leads an honor, we will usually give attitude, unless bridge logic dictates otherwise.

 

Say partner leads the ♥ Q. Dummy has ♥ K83 and you hold ♥ A72. You are thrilled with this lead, and you want to encourage partner to continue hearts. So you play the seven. Unfortunately, Declarer has played the king from dummy, and you have lost the trick. Signaling is important, but playing good bridge is more important; when dummy plays the king, you need to win the ace. Remember what the goal of signaling is: to help partner visualize the hand. If you win the ace, partner will know what’s going on in the suit; if you don’t, she’ll assume Declarer has the ace (no matter what your signal says) and defend the hand with the wrong picture of the hand. Not to mention the fact that you’ve given away a trick.

 

We give attitude when partner has led an honor and we intend to play a spot card.

 

We also give attitude when partner leads a spot card and dummy or declarer plays the ace or king in front of us. If they play the queen or lower and we can’t beat it, it’s pretty clear what our attitude in the suit is; we would play third-hand high if we could beat the card already played.

 

An example. Partner leads the ♣ 2. Dummy holds ♣ AQ4.

 

Hand 1. We hold ♣ K83. If dummy plays the ace, we will play the eight, encouraging a club continuation, because we have the king. If dummy plays the queen, we will play the king – bridge before signaling.

 

Hand 2. We hold ♣ 853. If dummy plays the ace, we will play the three, discouraging a club continuation because we do not have the king. If dummy plays the queen, any spot card we play is discouraging – we would play the king if we had it. So an attitude signal is not necessary. This is a situation for another kind of signal, a count signal, which we will deal with shortly.

 

 

There is one other time when we will give an attitude signal: when we make our first discard in a suit. This works the same way as when we are following suit: a high spot card means we like the suit, a low one means we don’t. So let’s say declarer is pulling trumps in a 4♠ contract and we have run out of trumps. If we hold ♣ AK953, we would discard the ♣ 9, showing some values in clubs. If instead we held ♣ 98532, we would discard the ♣ 2, showing no interest in clubs. (Or we might choose to discard in another suit.) Sometimes you will not be able to spare a card in the suit you like, or the spot cards you have aren’t high or low enough to send the message you want clearly; in these cases you’ll have to discourage in other suits and hope partner can infer which suit you like.

 

Let’s say dummy holds ♦ KJ96 and you have ♦ AQT behind the dummy. You can’t pitch the ten – that’s a trick! So you’ll have to discard a discouraging card in another suit. The same applies if you held ♦ AQT2 in the same scenario: if you discard the deuce partner will think you don’t like diamonds, and if you discard the ten you’re giving up a trick. So discourage in another suit and hope partner figures things out.

 

 

Some people play Odd/Even Discards on the first discard. This means that instead of using high and low to differentiate positive and negative attitude, they use odd and even. An odd spot card means you like the suit, and even card means you don’t like the suit AND gives suit preference between the other two suits. So if Declarer leads a spade and you pitch a heart, if you pitch the ♥ 3 or ♥ 7, it means you like hearts; if you pitch the ♥ 2 or ♥ 8 it means you don’t like hearts. But the ♥ 2 says you prefer clubs and the ♥ 8 means you prefer diamonds.

 

Odd/Even Discards can be very useful, but they can also be problematic, especially when you don’t have the right spot cards. It’s hard to encourage from ♥ AK862 or discourage from ♦ 9753. Because of these issues, Odd/Even Discards are only allowed on your first discard. After that, you revert to standard (or upside-down) carding.

 

What’s the Point – Helping Partner

Let’s look at things from the opening leader’s point of view. Say you’re defending a 4♠ contract and you lead the ♥ A from AKJ5. Dummy comes down with ♥ T84. Do you want to continue the suit? That depends how the other six cards in the suit are laid out. There are several possibilities. If partner has Qxx, you’d like to continue the suit and get your three tricks; if you don’t, declarer might be able to pitch one of his heart losers away somewhere. If partner has a doubleton, you’d like to cash the king and give him a ruff. If partner has xxx, that means declarer has Qxx; now you don’t want to continue hearts, you want to get partner in so he can lead the second round of hearts through declarer’s queen.

 

How do you know what’s going on in the suit? Partner’s attitude signal should make things clear. If partner has one of the holdings where you want to continue hearts – a doubleton or the queen – he will give you an encouraging signal and you’ll know to continue with the king and another heart. If partner has ♥ xxx, he’ll discourage and you’ll know to switch.

 

There’s a declarer play known as the Bath Coup that exploits poor defensive carding. Here is the situation: West leads the ♦ K and your holding in diamonds is

 

		Dummy
		♦ 432
		You
		♦ AJ5

 

Obviously West has ♦ KQx(x), so there’s no real chance of taking two tricks in the suit. Unless West continues diamonds! So declarer ducks the first round of diamonds. If the defenders aren’t communicating effectively, West will continue with the queen of diamonds (or a small diamond), right into Declarer’s AJ. Consider the problem from West’s perspective. His ♦ K from ♦ KQxx wins the first trick and he and sees ♦ xxx in dummy. If partner has ♦ Axx or ♦ Jxx, it’s right to continue diamonds; only if partner has ♦ xxx is it wrong. West has to rely on his partner to give an attitude signal – encouraging with the ace or the jack and discouraging with xxx.

 

Remember that partner’s signal is a two-step process. A three is usually low, but if he follows with the two, it was high. When interpreting partner’s signal, look at all the spots you can see and imagine the possible holdings partner could have. If you can see the two, you know the three is low; if you can’t, you have to consider the possibility that partner is echoing from 32.

 

Signaling with Honors

Attitude signals are made with spot cards. This will sometimes include the ten, but never a face card. Signaling with honors is a separate situation. When you signal with an honor, it’s like leading that honor – you show the card beneath it. So if you signal with the queen, you have the jack; if you signal with the jack, you have the ten. Obviously you could have a singleton – you don’t have any choice about what to play then. But never play an honor from Hx to try to encourage with a doubleton; partner will think you have the card beneath the honor you played.

 

 

 

Here’s an example. Partner leads the ♠ A against a 4♥ contract. Do not play the Q from ♠ Qx. Why not? Partner will expect you to have the ♠ J if you play the queen. Why is that a problem? Partner might underlead her king at trick two to put you on lead. Look at this deal:

 

 

	Contract	♠	xxx
	4♥ S	♥	Kxx
	Lead: ♠ A	♦	KQJxx
		♣	Jx
♠	AKxxx			♠	QJx
♥	xx			♥	xx
♦	xx			♦	xxxx
♣	AQxx			♣	xxxx
		♠	xx
		♥	AQJxxx
		♦	Ax
		♣	Kxx

 

 

 

Good signaling technique makes this hand easy. West leads the ace of spades and East signals with the Queen, promising the jack. West has an easy time now leading a small spade to East’s jack, and East plays a club through, giving the defense the first four tricks. If West can’t get East on lead, the defense can’t get two club tricks, as declarer pull trumps and pitches her clubs on dummy’s diamonds.

 

 

 

Count Signals

 

What Is a Count Signal?

A count signal tells partner whether you hold an even or odd number of cards in the suit in which you are signaling. All of our signals have to be binary – high means one thing, low means another – so we can’t have different signals to show 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. cards in the suit. We show whether we have an even or odd number, and partner can usually figure it out.

 

For example, say you’re defending a 3NT contract and you hold four hearts. Dummy also has four hearts, and partner signals that she has an even number. She can’t have six – that would be 14 hearts in the deck. And she can’t have zero, since she has followed once to give us this signal. So she has either two or four. If she has two, that gives declarer three; if she has four, that gives declarer one. Based on the bidding we can likely figure this out – if declarer opened or rebid NT, she is unlikely to have a singleton, so it’s a pretty good bet partner has two and declarer has three.

 

How to Give a Count Signal

In Standard carding, playing high-low shows an even number of cards in the suit, and playing low-high shows an odd number. Playing Upside Down it’s reversed: low-high is even, high-low is odd. We are using Standard carding in this course.

 

So if you’re dealt ♦ 853 and need to give count, you play the three and then the five. If you hold ♦ 7642, start with the seven, then the deuce. From ♦ 83, start with the 8. From ♦ Q8432, start with the deuce.

 

When to Give a Count Signal

We give count in two general situations:

1. On the first round of a suit led by declarer (either from hand or from the dummy). This excludes trumps.
2. In a suit led by our side (us or partner) after our attitude is already known.

The first one is easy: when declarer leads a suit from her hand or the dummy, we give count. We will remember our rule about bridge coming before signaling, so we won’t give count if we have to cover an honor, split honors, or make some other technical play. But usually we will be playing second-hand low, so we will give count. In fourth position, we will give count if we’re playing a spot card, but if we have to play high to win the trick, signaling takes a back seat.

 

We don’t bother giving count in trumps because this is unlikely to be useful information to partner, but could be very useful to declarer.

 

The second situation can be a little confusing, but think of it this way: in our suits, our first priority is attitude, and our second priority is count. So if you’ve already given an attitude signal in a suit, your next signal is count.

 

Here’s an example. You are defending a 4♠ contract and partner leads the ♣ A. Dummy has the ♣ J43 and you hold ♣ 952. You have nothing useful in the suit, so you play the discouraging deuce. Partner ignores you and continues with the ♣ Q. It seems clear that partner has the ♣ AKQ. She already knows we’re not wild about clubs; what’s important to her now is how many cards we have in the suit. She might want to cash all the clubs she can and then switch to another suit. So we give present count (also known as remainder count or current count), which means we give count based on the cards left in our hand (rather than our original holding in the suit). After playing the deuce at trick 1, we are left with ♣ 95, so we’ll play the nine, letting partner know we have an even number of cards remaining.

 

We have already discussed the situation where partner leads a spot card and declarer or dummy plays the queen or lower and we cannot cover. Our attitude in this situation is known (we would cover if we held an honor), so we give count. For example, partner leads the ♥ 2 and dummy has ♥ J84. Declarer calls for the jack. If we have the ace, king, or queen, we will play it. If we play a spot card instead, it cannot be giving encouraging attitude, so it is count. From ♥ 732, we play the deuce, showing an odd number of hearts.

 

The concept of giving count once your attitude is known also applies when discarding. If you have already expressed your attitude in a suit (either by a previous lead, signal, or discard), your discard in the suit is count. For example, if you hold ♦ AQ8742, your first diamond discard will be the 8, encouraging attitude. If you discard a second diamond, you should play the 2, giving remainder count (you have five diamonds left). Similarly, if you lead the ♣ K from ♣ KQJ872, your first discard in the suit should be the 2, showing current count (your attitude is known from the lead).

 

What’s the Point?

Why are count signals useful? Remember that our first goal on defense is to paint a picture of the unseen hands. That means figuring out how the suits are distributed and where the high cards are. Count signals from partner help us figure out declarer’s shape, making our picture of the hand clearer.

 

Count signals also help us know how many of our winners in a suit are cashing (in a suit contract) and how many tricks to hold up a winner.

 

 

Suit Preference Signals

 

What Is a Suit Preference Signal?

A suit preference signal is a way of telling partner where your high cards are located – you’re indicating your preference between the two possible suits partner might switch to. For example, if partner’s about to be on lead and it seems clear he’s going to lead either a club or a diamond, and you hold ♦ KQJx and ♣ xxx, you’d clearly prefer a diamond switch.

 

How to Give Suit Preference

When we’re giving a suit preference signal, a high spot card means we prefer the higher ranking of the possible suits; a low spot card means we prefer the lower ranking. It is possible to play Upside Down suit preference and reverse these, but almost no one does. (Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell are the one notable exception.) Most pairs who play “Upside Down” do their count and attitude signals upside down but their suit preference “right side up.” We refer to this signaling agreement as UDCA – Upside Down Count and Attitude. We are using Standard carding – which includes Standard suit preference – in this course.

 

When Does Suit Preference Apply?

In general, three criteria must apply for suit preference to be in effect:

1. Partner must be expected to win the trick.
2. It is reasonable to assume partner will not be continuing the suit led the previous trick.
3. There are two possible suits to which partner might switch. (Trumps are never considered a likely switch.)

Situations that meet all three criteria do not come up all that often. There are a couple standard suit preference situations.

 

Giving partner a ruff

Giving partner a ruff satisfies all three criteria: we’re expecting partner to win the trick (he’s ruffing!), he is not expected to continue the suit just led (he doesn’t have any more – he just ruffed!), and there are two other suits he might choose to switch to (he doesn’t have any more in the suit we led, and he’s not likely to switch to a trump). It can be essential to give partner a map back to our hand so we can give him another ruff before declarer pulls trumps. Here’s a very common example.

 

 

 

 

	4♠ S	♠	AJxx
	Lead: ♣ 5	♥	Kxx
		♦	Kxx
		♣	xxx
♠	xxx			♠	x
♥	xxxx			♥	Axxx
♦	xxxxx			♦	xx
♣	x			♣	A97532
		♠	KQxxx
		♥	QJ
		♦	AQx
		♣	KQJ

 

West leads his singleton club and East gives him a ruff. To set the contract, West needs to return a heart to East’s ace so he can get another ruff; if he plays a diamond (or for some reason a trump), declarer will win and pull trumps, losing to the ♥ A but not giving up the second club ruff for the setting trick. To aid West, East returns the ♣ 9, a suit preference signal indicating that hearts, rather than diamonds, is where his entry lies.

 

Dummy has a singleton

Another situation that meets these criteria is when partner leads an ace against a suit contract and dummy comes down with a singleton. Partner is likely to switch to one of the other suits, and it’s helpful if we tell him which we prefer. Of course, partner might ignore us and switch to trumps or continue his suit.

 

There is some possibility that we want to make a neutral signal here. Sometimes we want partner to continue his suit, sometimes we might want a trump switch. A middle card is encouraging in partner’s suit, suggesting either a continuation, a trump switch, or simple no preference for the other two suits.

 

Let’s say partner leads the ♣ A against a 4♠ contract. The dummy is

♠ KQxx ♥ AQxx ♦ Qxxx ♣ x

 

Hand 1: ♠ xx ♥ xxxx ♦ AKJx ♣ Q83

With a strong preference for diamonds, play the ♣ 3.

 

 

Hand 2: ♠ xx ♥ KJTx ♦ xxx ♣ 9752

You prefer hearts, so play the ♣ 9.

 

Hand 3: ♠ Jxxx ♥ Jxx ♦ Jx ♣ Q962

With no particular preference in the red suit and a trump holding that could get promoted if dummy has to ruff a couple clubs, play the six, encouraging a club continuation.

 

 

The same rules apply when declarer has an assumed singleton in the suit partner has led. This will be based on information from the auction. Sometimes declarer has announced shortness (by making a Splinter) or inferred shortness (by making natural bids in three other suits); sometimes our bidding plus the sight of dummy lets us infer shortness in declarer’s hand.

 

An example.

 

	Partner		You
1♣	1♥	Dbl	2♥
2♠	Pass	Pass	Pass

 

Partner leads the ♥ A and dummy is ♠ Qxxx ♥ Jxxx ♦ Ax ♣ Jxx. From the auction, you can deduce that declarer has a singleton heart: partner should have 5 for her overcall, you should have 3 for your raise, and dummy has shown up with 4. That leaves only one for declarer. Sure, it’s possible partner overcalled a four-card suit or you raised on Hx, but we should assume everyone has their bids. So we’ll treat this assumed singleton in declarer’s hand the same way we would treat a singleton in the dummy and give suit preference.

 

 

Putting It All Together

 

The three signals we have just learned will be the main weapons in our defensive arsenal. As we get more comfortable with defense in general and signaling in particular, we will find new places to use some of these signals, particularly suit preference signals. For now, what’s important is knowing a) what sort of signal you’re giving in a given situation, b) knowing how to give the correct signal, and c) interpreting partner’s signals correctly.

 

Here are some important lessons to remember:

• Suit preference applies only in very specific situations; unless the criteria for suit preference are clearly met, it’s not a suit preference situation.
• When declarer leads a suit from hand or dummy, we give count.
• When partner leads a suit, we give attitude. When attitude is known in partner’s suit, we give current count.
• Technical bridge plays like third-hand high and covering an honor with an honor take priority over signaling; we only signal when we are playing a spot card of no importance to the trick.
• We don’t give normal signals with honors; playing an honor shows the card beneath it.
• Signals are not commandments (even when playing with a more experienced partner); they are suggestions.