Bridge World Standard Defense 2001 is a set of defensive-carding agreements based on the methods most popular among American experts. It is used as a format, style, and partnership agreement for defensive card-play. The advantage of a Standard Defense is that it permits both partners, who are acquainted with the format, to readily conform to the standards of the agreement without much prior discussion. This interprets into a situation where both partners readily understand the leads, signals, and discards of the other player.

The Bridge World Standard Defense agreement is not complicated and conforms to most standard partnership agreements with very few deviations. Source.

I. Opening Leads
	A. Against Suit Contracts
		1. Honor Leads
			King from Ace-King; otherwise, top from a sequence; highest equal from an interior sequence
		2. Spot-Card Leads
			third highest from even length; lowest from odd length
		3. Alarm-Clock Leads (to suggest an unusual situation, such as a ruff possibility)
			fourth highest from five or six cards; fifth highest from seven cards
	B. Against No Trump Contracts
		1. Honor Leads
			Ace requests unblock or count signal; Queen requests Jack; highest equal from non-Ace sequences and interior sequences
		2. Spot-Card Leads
			fourth highest; second highest from weak suits
II. Later Leads
	A. Against Suit Contracts
		1. Honor Leads
			King from Ace-King; otherwise, highest equal from sequences and interior sequences
		2. Spot-Card Leads in opening leader's suit
			high from remaining doubleton; low from remaining tripleton
		3. Spot-Card Leads in a new suit
			third highest from even length; lowest from odd length
	B. Against No Trump Contracts
		1. Honor Leads
			highest equal from sequences and interior sequences
		2. Spot-Card Leads in opening leader's suit
			original fourth highest
		3. Spot-card Leads in a new suit
			attitude
III. Signaling Techniques or how to send messages
	A. Attitude Signals
		low discourages; high encourages
	B. Count Signals
		high even; low odd
			Exception: in the trump suit, upside-down count
	C. What a Count Signal shows
		present count
	D) Suit-Preference Signals
		high prefers higher suit; low prefers lower suit
IV. Signal Meanings or when to send which message
	A. When following to partner's lead
		attitude
	B. When following to declarer's or dummy's lead
		count
	C. When Playing Trumps
		count
	D. When Discarding
		In general:
			from sequences and interior sequences with significant trick-taking ability, highest equal
				First Discard in a particular suit
					attitude
				Second Discard in a particular suit
					count
				Discard relating to a different suit
					suit-preference
	E. When splitting honors as second hand
		King from Ace-King; otherwise highest equal
	F. Throughout the Defense
		1. Special situations where count takes precedence
			at trick one against a suit slam, after a King-lead
		2: In general:
			unusual play shows unusual holding or requests unusual play

 

 

If you wish to include this feature, or any other feature, of the game of bridge in your partnership agreement, then please make certain that the concept is understood by both partners. Be aware whether or not the feature is alertable or not and whether an announcement should or must be made. Check with the governing body and/or the bridge district and/or the bridge unit prior to the game to establish the guidelines applied. Please include the particular feature on your convention card in order that your opponents are also aware of this feature during the bidding process, since this information must be made known to them according to the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. We do not always include the procedure regarding Alerts and/or Announcements, since these regulations are changed and revised during time by the governing body. It is our intention only to present the information as concisely and as accurately as possible.