ATTITUDE SIGNALS (Part 1)
In every hand there are four cards played by the defenders which are generally more important than the other twenty-two:
- The opening lead.
- Partner’s play to the opening lead.
- The first “pitch” (free discard) by a defender.
- The first pitch by the other defender.
Entire books can and have been written on just one of these four cards.The opening lead is usually a critical moment in the life of the defense. If you pick the wrong card, it may be impossible to recover.
A second important aspect of the opening lead is what it tells partner about your hand. A lead of your fourth best "2" limits your hand to four cards in the suit—there are three cards in your hand that are higher, but none that are lower.
Likewise, the lead of a king immediately identifies another honor card in your hand. If you are leading the ace from ace-king holdings partner will know you hold the queen. If you are leading the king from ace-king holdings partner will know you hold either the ace or the queen. Every opening lead tells a story to a partner who is “listening.”
When partner follows suit to the opening lead, he also takes an important step towards describing his hand and developing the defense. Assume that you lead the ♥K. If partner plays a low heart, he is probably suggesting that you switch to some other suit. If he plays a high heart, he is probably encouraging you to continue leading hearts. In almost every case, partner’s play to your lead of a high honor will be an attitude signal, positive (high card) or negative (low card).
Other (legal) signals are also possible between defenders. However, until your partner’s attitude towards a suit is either known or obviously irrelevant, no other signal can be sent. Thus, the attitude signal is the most common defensive communication in the game.
The only problem with signals is that both defenders must be paying attention. If partner is not watching, he will not know what signal has been sent. Similarly, if a card is played without thought, an alert partner (interpreting partner’s “signal”) will reach the wrong conclusions.
[VIEW ATTITUDE SIGNALS PART 2]
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