From xxx or xxxx, lead low With three, lead low Leading a suit partner has bid and you have supported With 3-4 small, lead high

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1 This system of leads and signaling was taken wholesale from Eddie Kantar Teaches Modern Bridge Defense. I opted to take this system because both the leads and signals are not so different from standard, but he addresses some of the subtleties (such as when attitude should become suit preference) in some depth. Since it is fairly standard, learning it will help us understand our opponents signaling better even if we choose not to adopt it. The big difference in leads is that he recommends jack denies, meaning that the lead of a jack denies a higher honor. I figure we might as well try it at least to understand how it works in practice. It comes up somewhat regularly with our opponents. I simplified the system a little bit by skipping a few special cases for the moment and also leaving suit preference as high/low/middle (rather than the unexpected suit/the expected suit/continue which seemed to be asking for trouble).

2 Leads versus notrump Leads versus suits Leading a suit partner has bid but you have not supported With a doubleton, lead high From xxx or xxxx, lead low With three, lead low Leading a suit partner has bid and you have supported With 3-4 small, lead high From xxx or xxxx, lead high With 3-4 and an honor, lead low Leading a suit which the opponents have bid but you have three honors Lead fourth-best i Leading a suit headed by AKQ10, AKJ10, AKJ9, AQJ10 Lead the A. This requests that partner dump the missing honor under your A if they have it. Leading from a suit headed by the KQ109 K is the standard lead The lead of the Q is conventional, asking partner to drop the J if they have it Suits with perfect sequences (AKQ, KQJx, J109, etc) Lead the top card Almost perfect sequences (such as AKJ, KQ10x, QJ9x, etc) Lead the top card Suits with two touching honors (such as KQxx, AKxxx, J10xx, etc) If you have four+ cards, lead fourth-best A from AKx(x)(x) at trick one only; If you have three cards, lead the top except subsequently K except lead the K at trick 1 if: lead the K from AKx. This is referred to as the o Partner has bid the suit wishful thinking unblock in the hope that o You bid the suit and partner supported partner has greater length. o The contract is at the 5-level or higher ii Top of other touching honors Suits with interior sequences (e.g. headed by AJ10, KJ10, A109, etc) From AJ10 or KJ10, lead the 10 ( J denies ) It is generally inadvisable to underlead the A From A109, K109, etc, lead the 9 From KJ10, lead the 10 ( J denies ) From AK109 or AQ109, lead the 9 From K109, lead the 9 Three cards headed by non-adjacent honors (such as KJx, AQx, Q10x) iii From A10x, K10x, Q10x, lead low From AJx, KJx, try the jack (unblocking) From AQx, try the Q Three cards headed by an honor Lead low Low from 10xx, Jxx, Kxx, Qxx Typically, lead A from Axx Three worthless cards Lead top of nothing Try to avoid this lead, but lead high if you must do it Four+ cards headed by the jack or better and not covered by a previous case Lead fourth best Lead fourth-best except lead the A if you have it Four+ cards with at most the 10 With 10xxx or 9xxx, lead second-highest (4 th best also ok if you want it returned) With xxxx lead top of nothing With 5+ cards and sufficient outside entries, lead 4 th best With 5+ cards and insufficient outside entries, lead high

3 What Kantar thinks you should be picturing, given a lead: Versus no-trump A Shows suit headed by AKQ10, AKJ9, AQJ10 K Top of sequence KQJx, KQJ10, maybe KQx Q Top of sequence QJ10, QJ9, maybe QJx. Also conventional from KQ109 J Top of sequence, maybe J10x 10 Combinations headed by AJ10, KJ10, or possibly top of sequence or 109x 9 Combinations headed by the A109, K109, Q109, possibly but rarely a top card 8 or 7 Generally a discouraging card, occasionally 4 th best Lower spot cards Generally 4 th best Versus a suit AKx(x)(x) at trick one only, see disclaimers above Unsupported A Suits headed by AK (after trick one) or KQ, also Kx Suits headed by QJ; also Qx Suits headed by the J10; also Jx Suits headed by the 109 or KJ10; also 10x Suits headed by K109, Q109, top of sequence, or 9x

4 Versus suit contracts: Attitude signals: o Given when: partner leads an honor o The signal: A relatively high card (good attitude) shows an equal honor (e.g. if partner is leading from KQ, the A and J are equal honors) If partner knows that you can t have an equal honor (perhaps AJ is visible in dummy), then good attitude may be a doubleton When signaling, play the highest card you can afford. Play the highest of equals. Do not give up cards that may eventually cost a trick. It is acceptable to give a false attitude signal if a suit shift is important to defeating the contract (or is intolerable) o Exceptions: If the suit was bid by partner and supported and the equal honors are visible, give count If the contract is at the 5 or 6 level and partner leads a K and the Q is visible in the dummy, you must give count (to tell partner whether to cash the A now) Count signals: o Given when: Declarer or dummy lead a new suit Partner leads a new suit and it is clear from the play that you cannot have an honor in the suit Partner leads an A of his bid but unsupported suit and the dummy shows up with KQ o Do not give when: It is obvious from the bidding what declarer s count is o The signal: Low then high indicates an odd count High then low indicates an even count Note: With holdings such as Hx it is often better to preserve the honor than use it on a signal Trump echoes: o When ruffing tricks, doing a high/low with small trumps indicates that you have at least one more trump available o When leading trump, with an odd number play high/low; with an even number play low/high. Generally you do not bother if declarer s count is known from the bidding. o When declarer draws trump, high/low again shows an odd number and low/high an even number. Suit preference signals: o Given when leading a card for partner to ruff

5 o o o When partner leads an obvious singleton When partner leads the A of a supported suit and thereby establishes a number of winners in dummy If you have shown a 6+ card suit in the bidding and partner leads high, play a higher card for the higher side suit, a middle card for a continuation, and a lower card for the lower side suit Additional notes in signaling vs notrump: Don t have a good attitude about a doubleton (obviously) If partner makes a 4 th -best lead and dummy is winning with the A or K, give attitude. If dummy is winning with the Q or lower, give count (your attitude is obvious from not covering). If the count is obvious from the bidding, go back to attitude (indicating whether you have the J or 10 or not) If partner leads the A and you cannot drop the missing honor, give count If you are leading to knock out declarer s last stopper in your suit, an unnecessarily high card suggests an outside entry in a higher suit; a low one suggests the low suit i The idea here is that leading this suit may only be profitable if partner has an honor singletom or doubleton. if you lead high from (say) KQJxx you may crash the A or 10 from partner and give declarer an extra trick. This endeavor is not without risk, of course ii This exception is because it becomes more common to lead an unsupported A against a 5-level or higher contract, so the K makes it more clear that you must have a supporting honor iii Here Kantar notes that you are essentially making a desperation lead and attempting to unblock certain combinations. As he notes, Of course, your partner has to know that you are making a genius lead. Don t hold your breath.

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