[strong 1c]

Bidding goes 1S by partner, 4H by opponents, all Pass. You hold Q 9 2 of Spades and decide to lead partner's suit. Giving upside down count you will lead the Q or the 9, but is there any universal agreement that one should lead the top or the middle , or is it just a matter of partnership agreement? Thank you

[awm]

strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 10:24, said:

Bidding goes 1S by partner, 4H by opponents, all Pass. You hold Q 9 2 of Spades and decide to lead partner's suit. Giving upside down count you will lead the Q or the 9, but is there any universal agreement that one should lead the top or the middle , or is it just a matter of partnership agreement? Thank you

Count and leads are not related in this way -- agreeing to play upside down count doesn't automatically mean you lead high from an odd number.

Normally you don't lead an unsupported honor from three cards, so you should lead either the 2 or the 9 depending on your LEAD agreements (which you haven't specified). In Poland they would lead the 9 (always 2nd/4th) but most non-Polish pairs lead low from honor-third.

[jillybean]

I would lead 2, low from honour, nothing more sophisticated.

[mike777]

Great question

The confusion, the great confusion between
1. Playing UDCA
2. Trying to give count on your opening leads
3. Leading partners suit as an opening lead.

In your question you are trying to combine topics one and three.
Please do not combine them, these are three totally different topics.
The answer is these are three totally different topics with totally different rules.

Reminds when a partner thought every time you bid a "new minor"
Meant we were playing new minor forcing convention..

[strong 1c]

 awm, on 2026-June-24, 10:35, said:

Count and leads are not related in this way -- agreeing to play upside down count doesn't automatically mean you lead high from an odd number.

Normally you don't lead an unsupported honor from three cards, so you should lead either the 2 or the 9 depending on your LEAD agreements (which you haven't specified). In Poland they would lead the 9 (always 2nd/4th) but most non-Polish pairs lead low from honor-third.

Right. If I had the 972 and did not support the suit I am giving count with my lead. If I had support his suit, I am giving attitude. Where I was confused is when we have Hxx and did not support his suit. If I lead low from Hxx and hadn’t supported his support, partner is going to think I have an even count. Maybe I’m playing all wrong or maybe I can’t have my cake and eat it too. What do you lead from 972 when you supported his suit and when you didn’t ? Right now i would lead the 9 in both cases

[strong 1c]

 mike777, on 2026-June-24, 12:20, said:

Great question

The confusion, the great confusion between
1. Playing UDCA
2. Trying to give count on your opening leads
3. Leading partners suit as an opening lead.

In your question you are trying to combine topics one and three.
Please do not combine them, these are three totally different topics.
The answer is these are three totally different topics with totally different rules.

Reminds when a partner thought every time you bid a "new minor"
Meant we were playing new minor forcing convention..

Thanks. See question I asked AWM. What do you lead from 972 when you did or did not support partners suit?

[mike777]

 strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 12:29, said:

Right. If I had the 972 and did not support the suit I am giving count with my lead. If I had support his suit, I am giving attitude. Where I was confused is when we have Hxx and did not support his suit. If I lead low from Hxx and hadn’t supported his support, partner is going to think I have an even count. Maybe I’m playing all wrong or maybe I can’t have my cake and eat it too. What do you lead from 972 when you supported his suit and when you didn’t ? Right now i would lead the 9 in both cases

No

Again you are combining different topics.

Here you are leading partners suit.
So focus on that topic alone.
You are right to start with did you support partner or not.

Here you did not support and you are playing a suited contract, so:
With a stiff, lead it
With two lead highest card
With three lead lowest card

How will partner know if you have
Xxx or Qxx?

Answer, they won't, they need to figure it out by listening to the bidding and looking at dummy and the fact you did not support their suit.

__---------------

Please note these are the standard, book, leads. On rare occasions you might want to just lead an honor but those are exceptions to worry about later..

[strong 1c]

mike777, on 2026-June-24, 12:35, said:

No

Again you are combining different topics.

Here you are leading partners suit.
So focus on that topic alone.
You are right to start with did you support partner or not.

Here you did not support and you are playing a suited contract, so:
With a stiff, lead it
With two lead highest card
With three lead lowest card

How will partner know if you have
Xxx or Qxx?







Answer, they won't, they need to figure it out by listening to the bidding and looking at dummy and the fact you did not support their suit.

I apparently disagree. When leading partners suit which you did not support, I have read in many places, count is more important than attitude. hence with a doubleton, which will be most of the time, we lead low, but not if Hx or HH then we lead top. so 874, I lead the 8 and with 84 I lead the 4


Question if you did support partner; s suit, what do you lead from Q42 vs 862, please ?

[strong 1c]

awm, on 2026-June-24, 10:35, said:

Count and leads are not related in this way -- agreeing to play upside down count doesn't automatically mean you lead high from an odd number.

Normally you don't lead an unsupported honor from three cards, so you should lead either the 2 or the 9 depending on your LEAD agreements (which you haven't specified). In Poland they would lead the 9 (always 2nd/4th) but most non-Polish pairs lead low from honor-third.

We lead 3rd from even, low from odd but not when leading partner's suit

[mike777]

 strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 13:01, said:

I apparently disagree. When leading partners suit which you did not support, I have read in many places, count is more important than attitude. hence with a doubleton, which will be most of the time, we lead low, but not if Hx or HH then we lead top. so 874, I lead the 8 and with 84 I lead the 4

I was assuming you live in North America and read books written for that audience

Many places in Europe lead low from doubleton

We find that odd, smile
If your country has different written standards. Follow that..

[mike777]

 strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 13:04, said:

We lead 3rd from even, low from odd but not when leading partner's suit

Correct, two different topics, don't confuse them
😀🫶

[WasWinM]

In standard signaling, if you give count you play high low with even, low with odd. UDCA reverses that. With standard attitude, you play high if you like partner's lead, low if you don't. UDCA reverses that.

Opening lead conventions are totally different than UDCA. In standard, you lead 4th best; with 3, you are faced with an age-old problem: lead low to give count or high to show no honor. Each has its problems. Just pick one and do it consistently in knowledge that if will create problems at times.

If you have supported partner's suit, he already has an idea of the count so you normally would play a high spot card from 3 with no honor and low with an honor.

[strong 1c]

mike777, on 2026-June-24, 13:11, said:

I was assuming you live in North America and read books written for that audience

Many places in Europe lead low from doubleton

We find that odd, smile
If your country has different written standards. Follow that..

You are quite right, I live in ACBL land but perhaps my sources are from Europe ( OCP Precision is from England which is our basic system)

but please tell me leads when you support partner when you hold Q72 and 972 and then re-answer the question had you not supported suit..If I can see yours or awms answers ( or others), I can piece it together (or at least see what my opponents are doing)

[strong 1c]

WasWinM, on 2026-June-24, 13:13, said:

In standard signaling, if you give count you play high low with even, low with odd. UDCA reverses that. With standard attitude, you play high if you like partner's lead, low if you don't. UDCA reverses that.

Opening lead conventions are totally different than UDCA. In standard, you lead 4th best; with 3, you are faced with an age-old problem: lead low to give count or high to show no honor. Each has its problems. Just pick one and do it consistently in knowledge that if will create problems at times.

If you have supported partner's suit, he already has an idea of the count so you normally would play a high spot card from 3 with no honor and low with an honor.

If I supported partner's suit, we lead with attitude on his suit. From Hxx or Hxxx, we lead a low spot card. The question I am working thru is Hxx when you did not support partner's suit where I give count and it seems everyone else is leading low.

SO I ask when holding something like H92 vs 972, what are you leads if you supported the suit vs if you didn't. I wouldm= like to see your's or anyone's answers.

[mike777]

 strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 13:51, said:

You are quite right, I live in ACBL land but perhaps my sources are from Europe ( OCP Precision is from England which is our basic system)

but please tell me leads when you support partner when you hold Q72 and 972 and then re-answer the question had you not supported suit..If I can see yours or awms answers ( or others), I can piece it together (or at least see what my opponents are doing)

As I mentioned
If not supported I lead low with both.

Partner will need to figure out if from Qxx or xxx from the bidding and looking at dummy.

If supported, then partner knows I have length.
Xxx lead high deny honor
Qxx lead low show honor


In some rare cases I might lead Q if everyone knows declarer is very short in the suit so count is not important

Does that make sense to you?

[strong 1c]

mike777, on 2026-June-24, 14:10, said:

As I mentioned
If not supported I lead low with both.

Partner will need to figure out if from Qxx or xxx from the bidding and looking at dummy.

If supported, then partner knows I have length.
Xxx lead high deny honor
Qxx lead low show honor


In some rare cases I might lead Q if everyone knows declarer is very short in the suit so count is not important

Does that make sense to you?

I understand what you are doing. If supported, you and i are the same. If not supported, I am giving count, so we differ where there are 3 cards... What would you do if not supported with Q842 vs 9842 ?

I assume if not supported and had 82, you lead the 8 whilst I lead the 2)

[mike777]

 strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 14:28, said:

I understand what you are doing. If supported, you and i are the same. If not supported, I am giving count, so we differ where there are 3 cards... What would you do if not supported with Q842 vs 9842 ?

I assume if not supported and had 82, you lead the 8 whilst I lead the 2)

Fourth best is fine if unsupported.
Partner will need to figure it out.
Please remember most of the time we strain to raise with 4 card support.

[awm]

For what it's worth, we lead 3rd and 5th against suits, except high from three small when we have shown 3+ cards in the suit in the auction. So from Q-9-2 we would lead the 2. Of course each partnership will have its own agreement.

[strong 1c]

mike777, on 2026-June-24, 14:42, said:

Fourth best is fine if unsupported.
Partner will need to figure it out.
Please remember most of the time we strain to raise with 4 card support.

yes. I'm leading the low spot card too as there's 4 cards. So really, the only big difference I see between us comes back to the original question I posed. What to do with something like Q63 where you didn't support. It seems universal that leading the Q is not the right card and so this is really helpful for what I do. I think if I lead the middle (or 2ndbest) this will work. Partner will hopefully figure out that I have an odd count with one card higher.

[akwoo]

strong 1c, on 2026-June-24, 13:56, said:

SO I ask when holding something like H92 vs 972, what are you leads if you supported the suit vs if you didn't. I wouldm= like to see your's or anyone's answers.

I have never played in a partnership where our leads varied based on whether we have supported partner's suit. My partners and I have found that opening leads are hard enough without having subtle agreements; the gain from better agreements is outweighed by the number of times we forget them. Besides, my partnerships tend to raise with doubleton support for competitive reasons frequently enough to take that into account for our agreements.

From Q92, every partnership I have played in has led the 2.

From 972, I have played in partnerships that led the 9, in partnerships that led the 7, and partnerships that led the 2. I am more likely to violate our agreements when I have supported the suit, on the grounds that partner is more likely to be able to figure that out.