[nielsfoged]

POSTER'S COMMENT: By mistake I posted this topic both here and in the "Advanced and Expert-Class Bridge" (AECB) forum. Thank you to Kenberg and Mbodell for their fine comments below, but please read the topic and continue the discussion at the AECB forum rather than here! I have copied their replies over there as well. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Niels.

Normally, I would expect Standard and UDCA counts to be approximately equally good, but I noticed the following situation, which may be just one among several, where there seems to be skewness:

When I lead the A from a long suit without the K against a trump contract in expection of shortness in partners hand, and this is (partially) confirmed by the fact that partner and declarer share 3 small cards either 2-1 or 1-2 (my A holds), would I then prefer that our agreement was Standard count or UDCA from doubleton?

Say partner and declarer share the T, 6 and 2.
Playing Standard the following scenarios are relevant.
* Partner plays 2 (from 2). We always guess his singleton no matter what declarer plays.
* Partner plays 6 (from 62 or 6). If declarer plays the 2, we know the 6 is singleton, so a well-prepared expert declarer will always play the T from T2. In that case our guess is down to 50-50.
* Partner plays T (from T2, T6 or T). No matter what declarer plays, we will be correct in guessing partner to have a doubleton in 2/3 of the cases.

Playing UDCA the scenarios will be parallel, but a small difference is, however, apparent and perhaps relevant. When our partner plays the 6 (from T6 or 6), the well-prepared expert declarer will know to always play the 2 from T2, since only that will bring our guess down to 50-50.

However, when we play UDCA, the non-expert (or the unprepared expert!) will typically (>>50%) do the same, that is play the 2 from T2. I think these non-experts or unprepared expert declarers will more rarely (<<50%) be able to play the T from T2 against us, when our agreement is Standard counts.

Do you agree? ...and more importantly, can you help me to become happy with UDCA again?

/Niels

A little PS: The above statistics are a priori. I guess that typically declarer will have more trumps than partner and therefore less space for the doubleton than partner. If the a priori chance is 50-50, partner seems to be more prone to have the doubleton... ...of course unless he plays his card very fast

[kenberg]

Reasoning along those lines, you should perhaps balance this against the number of players who
a. Know that when the 6 appears they should play the ten from ten-deuce against std but
b. Didn't bother to note that you are playing upside down.
So they play the ten and you get your ruff.

Maybe it depends on the game you are in.

Myself, I'm not a big fan of udca. I think I know the arguments, but there are counter-arguments and I am not convinced. Presumably I am wrong as udca is pretty much std among the experts.

[Mbodell]

There are some people who play standard count and upside down attitude, for this and other reasons. I also like playing standard attitude on discards (mainly because I discourage more than I encourage and like to pitch small cards).

Really, I don't think any one matters half so much as being on the same page as your partner about when are things attitude, when are they suit preference, and when are they count (and does attitude and suit preference direct partner or merely inform).

[nielsfoged]

POSTER'S COMMENT: By mistake I posted this topic both here and in the "Advanced and Expert-Class Bridge" (AECB) forum. Thank you to Kenberg and Mbodell for their fine comments above, but please read the topic and continue the discussion at the AECB forum rather than here!

I appologize for the incovenience
Niels.