General Signal
In general, we use UDCA.
In suit contract, we prefer Attitude > Counting > Suit preference.
Signaling Techniques
- Attitude signals: low encourages; high discourages
- Count signals: high odd; low even
- What a count signal shows: present count
- Suit-preference signals: high prefers higher suit; low prefers lower suit
Signal Meanings
Partner's lead
When following to partner's lead: attitude (at trick one, discouraging signal suggests the ability to support the obvious shift), but:
- (?)suit-preference when a high honor is led and dummy has a singleton and can trump
- (?)count at trick one when not beating dummy's card or finessing and dummy's highest is the jack or lower or the equivalent
Declarer's or Dummy's lead
When following to declarer's or dummy's lead: count (but see Smith, below)
When following suit in trumps: count
When discarding:
- from sequences and interior sequences with significant trick-taking ability: highest equal
- first discard in a particular suit: attitude
- second discard in a particular suit: count
- discard relating to a different suit: suit-preference
When splitting honors as second hand: king from ace-king; otherwise highest equal
Throughout the defense
Throughout the defense:
- Special situations where count takes precedence: at trick one against a suit slam after a king-lead
- In general, unusual play shows unusual holding or requests unusual play.
- Smith: Against notrump, each defender's first card played after trick one that does not need an emergency meaning(such as count in dummy's long suit, 5 cards suit)is an in-context attitude signal relating to the suit of the opening lead. from bridgeguys