[sceptic]

I was aksed if I should alert leading low from a doubleton, I have no idea, can some one enlighten me on the basic requirements for alerting leads etc

Thx

[luke warm]

my understanding is that you don't alert leads... your ops have a right to know the lead agreements you and partner have, most of which should be on your cc

[inquiry]

When you sit down at a new table, you hsould pre-alert a few things

1) General system (2/1, acol, polish club)
2) carding (standard, udca, smith echo, obvious shift, lavinthal, etc)
3) Your leads (3.5, standard, 2/4, journalist,

This makes a very short thing you do.. . mine is oftn

inquiry> hi
inquiry> 2over1, udca, 2/4 leads, mulit2♦, 14-16 NT

[Flame]

prealert is the best way but if you didnt give a prealert , you should alert the lead.

[luke warm]

leads are not alertable, flame... at least that's my understanding of the rules... you can pre-alert, and probably should, and of course you fully disclose if asked, but alert the lead? i don't think that's required... besides, almost everyone asks unless it's already been made known

[paulg]

In many jurisdictions alerting of leads in not required in f2f competitions - where partnerships should also have a convention card so it is easy to check (or ask when the CC is not available). The ACBL require pre-alerting of leading small from doubleton but this is not the case in the UK.

Online, few pairs have CCs and even fewer check if their opps have posted CCs, so I believe it is important to disclose unusual leading methods. Of course what is unusual varies by country.

As Ben says, the best way for a regular partnership is the one line disclosure before play. However even with this 2/4 leads in Poland are not the same as 2/4 leads in UK, so care still has to be taken.

Finally, my rule about disclosure is whether I would be embarrassed if declarer went wrong because he didn't understand our leading methods, so I often message the opps with our leading methods when they play their first suit and NT contract particular as some of "standard" leads vary by auction and contract.

Paul

[sceptic]

This leads me to another question, the small from doubleton lead, was unusual for me as I try not to do it.

I was not trying to decieve, but could see no other lead I liked, in fact I probably led it as nothing seemed to be nice, as it happens it set opps, but more so because they played me for 3 of that suit as opposed to 2.

Would this be classified as cheating or would it incur penalties if a director was called to the table?

[paulg]

sceptic, on Jan 16 2005, 09:14 AM, said:

This leads me  to another question, the small from doubleton lead, was unusual for me as I try not to do it.

I was not trying to decieve, but could see no other lead I liked, in fact I probably led it as nothing seemed to be nice, as it happens it set opps, but more so because they played me for 3 of that suit as opposed to 2.

Would this be classified as cheating or would it incur penalties if a director was called to the table?

The only way that this could be classified as cheating is when your published methods are not the methods that you are actually playing. For example, if you tell the opposition that you lead top from doubleton but have agreed that with partner that you will actually lead small.

If your partner will be deceived by a lead to the same extent as the opposition, because you have diverged from partnership agreements, then this is perfectly acceptable and there can not be any rebuttal, penalty or cheating allegation - it is similar to a psyche.

However, if you do this regularly with the same partner, then you will establish a partnership understanding. The opponents would be entitled to know that you occasionally do this. If it were decided that you had a concealed partnership understanding, then you could be subject to penalties.

Just deciding to randomise your leads like this is not recommended. Defence is the hardest part of the game and confusing partner is the most likely result. There are certain times when it is recognised that partner does not matter, for instance when you know that partner has no points and will not be getting the lead, but in general you are more likely to cause problems for yourself rather than declarer.

Paul

[keylime]

In ACBL land, the only thing that needs a pre-alert as the following three items (right from the material I'm reading for my club director's test):

1. Obvious Switch agreements
2. Leading low from doubletons.
3. Carding that changes throughout the hand.

I personally don't like leading low, because with honor doubleton, it causes some "issues" from time to time.

Take it from someone, who online alerts about 70 percent of my bids when playing with the Mrs......at times it's a lot of hard work!