[mike777]

Vs NT, opening lead

Ace asks partner to drop an honor, if no honor you give count
K asks for attitude.

I assume this is standard?

[david_c]

In this part of the world it's pretty much the opposite of that.

[goobers]

That's how I play it, learned it from Pavlicek's website.

[mikeh]

mike777, on Jun 26 2007, 04:25 PM, said:

Vs NT, opening lead

Ace asks partner to drop an honor, if no honor you give count
K asks for attitude.

I assume this is standard?

I played this as standard for 25 years. Then Doug Fraser moved here from Montreal and I began playing with him, and back there, expert standard is the exact opposite.

[Walddk]

It's the opposite in most parts of Europe because it was made public by Garozzo in the 60's.

A and Q ask for attitude.
K for unblock or count.

Roland

[kenrexford]

One or the other is "standard" if you get high enough in the ranks.

[skjaeran]

In most of my partnership a lead of an honour ask for attitude.
The exception being that one always unblock the card below the lead card (not ace). Thus we lead Q from KQT9(x) and K from AKJT(x).

[Gerben42]

Quote

This is standard in USA despite being clearly inferior.

Care to explain why by any chance, Justin? I'm interested in this due to a recent discussion and we could not come up with one way being better than the other.

[SoTired]

In the USA against NT without discussion:

A,Q asks for unblock or count
K asks for attitude (of course, you unblock with Hx)

Apparently, many play that K asks for unblock and AQ ask attitude. I, too, do not know the advantage of that.

[mike777]

ACE LEADS

Against no trump, you'll lead an unsupported Ace when it is in partner's suit, or perhaps you are defending 7NT, or even 6NT on a very unusual auction.

But normally, an ace lead means you have a very very good suit, and your only concern is whether or not you can run it by yourself (or should shift at trick two). Therefore, it demands that partner play an honor if he holds one, otherwise he gives count, playing his highest card with an even number, and his lowest card with an odd number....

The most common holdings are:

AKJT(xx)
AKQT(xx)

Example, you lead A from AKJTx...dummy has XXX. If pard plays the queen, you run the suit. If pard plays a high spot implying a doubeton, you know to shift, and hope partner later can lead through declarer's queen. Finally, if pard plays a low spot, you can play pard for three of them, and can bang down the King dropping the Queen (of course if pard had a singleton, you won't run the suit, but you can't anyway if you shift).

Example, you lead A from AKJTx...dummy has XX. If pard plays the queen, you run the suit. If pard plays a low spot implying a tripleton, you know to shift, and hope partner later can lead through declarer's queen. Finally, if pard plays a high spot, you can play pard for four of them, and can bang down the King dropping the Queen (of course if pard had a doubleton, you won't run the suit, but you can't anyway if you shift).

Similar logic applies when the leader or dummy have different lengths in the suit.

KING LEADS

If you, as the leader, don't have 4 honors yourself, you probably should avoid leading the ace, as you don't want to set up a trick out of nowhere for declarer (or dummy) when they hold 4 cards in the suit. In fact, if you know that declarer does in fact have 4 cards in the suit, you should probably go ahead and underlead any holding that has less than 4 honors--particularly if you are lacking in side entries.

But normally with 3 honors, you just make the standard lead of one of the touching honors, such as the King from:

AKJx(x)
AKTx(x)
KQJx(x)
KQTx(x)

Across, from a King lead, your third hand does whatever is right for the given situation---meaning if from the lead, the bidding, what appears in dummy, and what his play will reveal to leader, if it is possible (to the leader) for third hand to have a good attitude, he plays attitude. and the rest of the time he needs to give count....or in the rare case, where the suit led can have no future (like a bunch of stoppers appear in dummy), he should play suit preference.

So most of the time, across from a King lead, you'll give attitude. Don't throw an honor if you have one, just play your second highest card in that case to encourage. With doubleton honor, you'll have to decide if unblocking will help of hinder the defense....Do NOT unblock, if you are setting up an extra stopper for declarer--which will often be the case if dummy or declarer holds 4 cards in the suit.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Fluffy]

mike777, on Jun 28 2007, 02:25 PM, said:

The most common holdings are:

AKJT(xx)
AKQT(xx)

Maybe you get that holding often in america when oppoent's play NT, but here the most common holding for an unblock ask is KQ10xx, KQJxx or AKJxx.


We lead the Queen from AKQx

[FrancesHinden]

SoTired, on Jun 28 2007, 12:14 PM, said:

In the USA against NT without discussion:

A,Q asks for unblock or count
K asks for attitude (of course, you unblock with Hx)

Apparently, many play that K asks for unblock and AQ ask attitude. I, too, do not know the advantage of that.

The main reason I prefer the King-asks-for-unblock approach is that you are more likely to have an honour holding needing an unblock with the king but not the ace, than you are with the ace but not the king. Any holding with both the Ace and the King will work whatever method you play.

Holding, say, KQ109x I lead the king and dummy has 2 low. I want partner to play the J or Ace if he has it, and to give count otherwise. If I have our side's entry, I need to know if declarer has taken the first round from AJx or from AJ doubleton. Leading the K for attitude won't help me if dummy hits with 3 low as I can't tell the difference between 2 low and 3 low in partner's hand. Leading the Q for count won't help because if the King wins I don't know where the Jack is.

However, I can't think of any holdings where I want to lead the Ace for unblock/count AND I don't also hold the King AND attitude on the ace lead won't help me. So I would rather play a strong King lead than a strong Ace lead.

Note that either approach (A attitude/King count or A=count/King attitude) will mean that you sometimes lead the "non-standard" honour card. If you decide to lead top from AKxx (or AKx) you have to lead the King if ace asks for unblock; if you decide to lead an honour from KQ9xx you have to lead the Queen if King asks for unblock.

Remember that there are always some insoluble problems.
No-one has yet come up with a combined lead-and-signalling method that is 100% successful on all layouts. Take the auction 1NT - 3NT, with dummy having 3 low in the suit led. You cannot always always take your 4 tricks a) when the defence have AKJx opposite Qxx and declarer has 10xx and when the defence have AKJx opposite 10xxx and declarer has Qx and c) when the defence have AKJ9 opposite xxx, declarer has Qxx and 3rd hand has an outside entry. There are plenty of other ambiguous layouts, whatever method you play - that's just one example.