Upside-Down Signals: UDCA Count and Attitude Explained

Upside-down signals reverse the standard meaning of your spot cards: a low card encourages and a high card discourages, and when you give count, a low card shows an even number and a high card an odd number. The full name is upside-down count and attitude, or UDCA. Suit preference signals and your opening leads do not change.

Why play it? When you like a suit, you usually hold honors in it and cannot always spare a high spot card. When you dislike a suit, you have nothing in it, so a high card costs nothing. Upside-down attitude lets you signal with the card you can afford.

Attitude applies when partner leads a suit, or on your first discard if you play attitude discards. Count applies mainly when declarer leads a suit. If either idea is new, start with bridge signals, which covers the basic rules of when each signal applies.

Partner leads the ♠A against 4♥ (from A-K, or A-K-x-x). Dummy has ♠8-6-4.

• You hold ♠Q-7-2 and want partner to continue: play the ♠2. In standard you would play the 7.
• You hold ♠9-5-3 and do not want spades continued: play the ♠9. In standard you would play the 3.

The gain shows most with holdings like Q-10-9 or K-10-9-x against notrump or on discards. In standard signals, to encourage you have to throw away the 9 or the 10, cards that may later win a trick or stop declarer's spots. In upside-down signals you throw your lowest card and keep the strong spots.

Count tells partner how many cards you hold in the suit declarer is playing:

With an odd number, play the highest card you can spare; with an even number, play the lowest. Do not waste a card that could win a trick: from three cards headed by the 10 or the 9, it is fine to signal with the second card if the top one matters.

The most common use is helping partner judge a hold-up: when declarer is trying to set up a long suit in a dummy that has no outside entry, the defender with the ace must win it on exactly the right round.

You lead the ♠Q and declarer wins the ♠K. At trick two he leads the ♦7. You play low, dummy's ♦K wins and partner plays the ♦8. Dummy now leads the ♦9.

Count the suit. In upside-down count, the 8 is a high card, so partner has an odd number: three (8-4-2). That gives declarer two diamonds, and he has just played one of them. You must take the ♦A now, on the second round. Dummy's ♦Q-J-10 are cut off, because dummy has no other entry, and declarer is held to eight tricks: ♠A-K, ♥A-K and ♣A-K-Q are seven, plus one diamond. 3NT goes one down. (Partner's 8 could in theory be a singleton, but then declarer would hold four diamonds and no hold-up could cut dummy off, so you play for three.)

Double dummy, the timing is everything:

In standard count, partner would have played the ♦2 from 8-4-2, with the same message. The method does not matter as long as both of you play the same one; what wins the deal is that partner gives count and you trust it.

Many UDCA players also use upside-down attitude discards: a low discard asks for that suit, a high discard says you do not want it. That keeps the same logic in every situation: you never have to throw a high card from a suit you want partner to lead.

Others combine UDCA with a different discard method, such as odd-even or Lavinthal discards, where the discard also shows a suit preference. See suit preference signals for the Lavinthal style. Any of these works; what costs tricks is a partnership where one player thinks a low discard means "yes" and the other thinks it means "no".

• Agree it fully. Attitude only, count only, or both? Discards too? Most pairs who play upside-down play both attitude and count, and say "UDCA" on the card.
• Expect a few slips. Habits from years of standard signals die slowly. In the first sessions, take a moment before every signal.
• Do not reverse suit preference. In nearly every partnership, a high card still asks for the higher suit, even with UDCA.
• Review deals together. Use a double dummy solver or the hand analyzer after the session to check what each signal should have been.

Upside-down or standard, a spot card is a signal only when you can afford it and partner needs the message. Three situations override the signal:

1. Third hand high. When partner leads low and you must try to win the trick or force out declarer's honor, play the card that does that job. Against notrump, after partner leads the ♥4 and dummy plays low, your ♥K is not an attitude signal; it is an attempt to win.
2. Unblocking. If keeping a high card would block partner's long suit, throw it, whatever it would mean as a signal.
3. No real choice. With a doubleton honor, such as K-x, you may have to keep the king. Partner should then allow for the fact that you could not signal freely.

Also remember which signal comes first. On partner's lead the first message is attitude; on declarer's lead it is count. Suit preference is used only when neither of those can matter, for example when you give partner a ruff.

• Signaling count when partner needs attitude. On partner's honor lead, tell him whether to continue. Count comes into play on declarer's leads.
• Reading a card in isolation. The ♠6 can be high or low. Look at the cards you can see: in dummy, in your hand and the cards already played. If lower spots are missing, the 6 may be partner's lowest.
• Giving count every time. Count helps partner when he has a decision, such as a hold-up. When it can only help declarer, play your cards in a neutral order.
• Forgetting the method with a new partner. UDCA is common among tournament players but not universal. Ask before you play.

Signals are only half of defense: the opening lead comes first. Train it in the Lead Gym, and read the bridge defense tips and Rusinow leads for the lead side of the partnership.