To take all your tricks on defense, you need to help your partner find the right leads. The only legal way to communicate with your partner is with your bids and the cards you play.
Use the Attitude Signal to encourage or discourage the lead of a suit.
- The Attitude Signal applies when partner leads a suit and your play isn’t forced, or when discarding.
- Using standard signals, high-low encourages and low-high discourages.
This is reversed for pairs using upside-down signals.
In the examples below, West leads the King from KQT4 and dummy tables with 3 small. West’s King wins the trick. Should West continue the suit? If declarer has AJ3, continuing the suit is costly. Partner’s attitude signal is your guide.
Encourage with a fitting honor:
East encourages with a fitting honor by playing their highest affordable card, the ♥7.
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| N |
| W |
♥King led to the 3, 7, & 8 |
E |
| S |
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Discourage without a fitting honor:
East doesn’t have a fitting honor. So they discourage by playing their lowest card, the ♥2.
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| N |
| W |
♥King led to the 3, 7, & 8 |
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| S |
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Note that if West led a 2nd round of hearts, declarer would win 2 heart tricks.
Attitude Signal on Discards:
- Encourage to suggest the lead of a suit, or to say you are guarding the suit.
- Discourage to warn against the lead of a suit, or say your are not guarding the suit.
- With a mediocre holding in a suit, discard a middling card
(e.g. discard the ♥5 from ♥Q 7 5 4)
