SIGNALS
By Anders Wistrand
Declarer sees both his own hand and his partner's which gives an advantage over the defending pair. The defender has to signal to partner if he likes the lead, if he wants a special suit in return and how many cards he holds in declarers suit at some occasions. Using signals improve the possibilities for a good defence immensely. There are three types of signals, Attitude, Suit preference and Count.
Attitude: When my partner leads a suit he often wants to know if I have an honour in this suit or maybe if I can ruff third time suit is lead. This signal shows my attitude to (interest in) the lead.
The normal way is to show interest by laying a high card the first time the suit is led and a lower next time. Of course responder has limited possibilities to chose card, but normally 7 or higher is regarded as a high card.
I myself prefer Reverse attitude signals. This means that you show interest by laying a low card at first occasion. The advantage is that you can keep your higher cards in a suit you want to develop.
Attitude signal is mostly given when partner leads a suit. But there is another occasion to use attitude signal. When you are void in a suit played by partner or declarer you have to discard. By discarding a card in a suit you can tell partner if you want him to lead that suit or not. Still more here I prefer the reverse attitude signal.
Suit preference: When you give partner a ruff you may have an ace in one of the two remaining suits (not the one you ruff and not trump). If partner returns your ace suit you can give him a second ruff. You have the possibility to tell him if he shall return the higher ranking suit or the lower ranking by leading a high card or a low card to ruff. Of course you don't ruff if partners card will stay good. Suit preference signals are only given when you (or partner) play a suit for ruff.
Count: It is sometimes very important for a defender to know how many tricks he shall wait with an ace to block declarer's long suit (mostly seen on the table). With even number of cards you play low first and higher second time the suit is played. With odd number of cards in the suit you play high first and a lower second time.
Count signal is only given when declarer plays a suit.
Härryda
2011-07-22