DISCARDS and SIGNALS

Discards

We will deal with the following:

1. No discard agreement.

2. Lavinthal (McKenney)

3. Revolving

4. Dodds

5. Odds & Even

No Discards

Many players do not play any particular system for discards (or signals) and prefer to make natural discards – in fact, as players progress and become more experienced, it is arguable one should be able to decide on what is going on, especially when you take in the bidding, without any!

However, some tools can be beneficial, as we will hopefully see....

McKenney

With this agreement, the first discard is suit preference. You do not like the led suit, of course, and you do not like the suit discarded. Your suit preference signal tells partner which of the two remaining suits you prefer. A high card for the higher ranking of the remaining suits and a low card for the lower ranking.

This treatment is known as Lavinthal in the United States, or McKenney in the UK. The potential disadvantage of this method is that you always have to give preference for one suit or other, and you may not want any switch in particular. This can be overcome at times by signalling for an "impossible" switch, such as a suit in which dummy has a very strong holding e.g. AKQ.

Revolving Discard

As with McKenney, you have the possibility to request suit preference in two ways. A low discard indicates interest in the suit directly below (a low club signaling spades); a high discard signals preference for the suit directly above (a high spade signaling clubs).

In a suit contract, the trump suit is skipped in reading the signal.

This is felt by many to be easier to remember than McKenney.

Dodds

With this agreement, the discard depends on both the colour of the suit card and its value.

So, a discard of an odd spot club, asks for the other black suit -  ie. Spades.

      a discard of an odd spot Spade card, asks for a Club.

      a discard of an even spot Club, asks for a Club

      a discard of an even spot Spade, asks for a Spade.

Conversely, the same applies to Red Suit discards.

Odd-Even

With this agreement, the first discard shows the following:

 if it is an odd spot card (three, five, seven or nine) it is encouraging in that suit;

 if it is a low even spot card (deuce or four), it is suit preference for the lower ranking suit of the other two suits;

if it is a high even spot card (six or eight), it shows preference for the higher ranking suit. The even card often has a dual function, in that, it not only indicates suit preference but it is also a negative indication for the suit being used for the even card.

Signals

We will discuss three types of signals. The most frequently used one is attitude signal. The next frequently used one is count signal.

When not to signal

The general principle is to NOT signal if doing so will help declarer more than the defenders.

Case 1: You judge that you hold virtually all of the defensive cards and that partner will very probably never gain the lead. Do not signal. Partner, on the other hand, knowing the situation, should consider signalling honestly.

Case 2: Signalling against a slam is very dangerous. Make declarer work as hard as possible.

Attitude

When signalling standard attitude is high card encouraging and a low card discouraging. Attitude is normally signalled when following suit to partner's led suit and when discarding on declarer's led suit.

For example, if partner leads the Ace of spades, you might signal with the nine if you held the King (requesting partner to continue the suit), or with the three if you held nothing but small cards in spades (notifying partner that a switch to another suit is best).

Of course, you can only signal with the cards you hold.

 Signalling low is easy for you, but if your lowest card is the eight, partner might have difficulty "reading" it as low.

When you are signalling high, play the highest card you can afford. Having easily-readable cards to signal is part of the luck of the deal.

Suppose declarer is drawing trumps and you are out on the third round. Your discard should be an attitude signal for partner. If you play a high-spot diamond, for example, you ask partner to lead diamonds on gaining the lead. Normally, you would have an honor or honors in diamonds in this case. If you play a low diamond, you ask partner to not lead diamonds, if gaining the lead. Partner will usually be able to figure out which of the other suits you do like (if any).

If declarer plays yet another round of trump, you may be able to play yet another diamond. This will make it unambiguous to partner whether you are encouraging diamonds (by playing high-low) or discouraging diamonds (by playing low-high).

Count signal

The standard count signal is to play high-low with an even number of cards, and low-high with an odd number.

Normally, you "give count" when following suit to declarer's led suits.

This will help partner determine the distribution of the suit.

For example, partner leads the K♠, what do you play from the following holding?

1. ♠A964                              

2. ♠A64

3. ♠962

Answers:         1.   ♠9  intending to play High/Low to give an even count, but the 9 is also encouraging.

2.   ♠4, followed by the 6 would show an odd number of cards held in that suit.

3.   ♠6, followed by the 9 to show an odd number. Do not play the 2, as this gives information to the opposition, in that the 2 is either a singleton or that you definitely hold more than two cards in the suit!

NOTE ...  against a trump contract, when trumps are played, you may play the opposite – ie. play high-low when you have an odd number to confuse the opposition!

Suit preference signal (McKenney Style)

This signal is used infrequently, but I use it regularly with my playing partners as we find it a useful tool defending against Trump contracts. It is the same as McKenney discards.

With this signal, we use an unusually high card to ask for a lead of the higher-ranking suit and an unusually low card means a lead of the lower-ranking suit.

Defending a Spade contract, Partner leads A♥  - what card do you play in each of the following:

• ♠A94               ♥KQJ64          ♦765               ♣62
• ♠T94                ♥J64                ♦A65              ♣6432
• ♠K94               ♥J74                ♦J963              ♣Q32

Answers:         1. ♥K, as this tells partner you hold the Queen and possibly the Jack as well.

2. ♥J, which asks partner to lead the higher of the other non-trump suits – Diamonds.

3. ♥7, a neutral card asking for no particular lead or switch to another suit.

Also, defending a Spade contract, your partner leads what you believe to be a singleton ♦J.

After winning the ♦A, what do you lead from these hands: 

• ♠T94                ♥KT74                        ♦AT3              ♣A94

o ♠974                ♥AT74                        ♦AT3              ♣942

o ♠974                ♥ ♦AQT43         ♣AK942

Answers:         1. ♦3, an unusually low card – asking partner to lead a Club.

2. ♦T, an unusually high card -  asking for a Heart lead.

3. ♦T, an unusually high card -  asking for a Heart lead – no need a ask for a Club,     get your ruff in first!   

Martin Buck

Casebook : 4

May 2010