Signaling

This is another topic that I've been thinking about for some time.  Len and I are trying a slightly different scheme for signaling which works as follows:


if either leader or leader's partner has strongly bid a suit, then follower skips attitude and goes directly to count; otherwise, follower starts with attitude and then goes to count. In all cases, after count, suit preference would come next.

A little explanation of "strongly bid" is called for. A "strongly bid" suit is one which either:

• overcalled;
• was bid twice;
• made a preempt.

It's possible of course that your suit quality isn't all that good, especially if you made a weak jump overcall.  But it's too late to worry about that now that partner is leading your suit!  He's expecting you to have good attitude so your carding, if it means anything at all, is count.

Leader of course makes the normal lead from an honor sequence or 3rd/lowest or whatever your lead conventions are.

The point of this convention is that when one player has strongly bid a suit, there won't be many tricks standing up in the suit.  But knowing exactly how many will stand up is often crucially important.