Suit Preference / Lavinthal — Which Other Suit?
🎯 Learning Objective: To point partner towards a specific third suit when attitude and count have nothing left to say — and to recognise the handful of moments when this signal, and only this signal, is the message.
💡 Key Idea: A suit-preference signal (also called Lavinthal) says which other suit I want you to lead. A high card asks for the higher-ranking of the two obvious side suits; a low card asks for the lower-ranking one. It is the third and last question a card can answer, and it only applies once attitude and count are off the table.
When suit preference is the question
Suit preference is not an everyday signal — it fires only when the other two make no sense. The clearest case: you are giving partner a ruff. You lead a card for them to trump; attitude is irrelevant (they are ruffing, not deciding whether to continue) and count is irrelevant (they are about to trump it). So the size of the card you lead for the ruff points to your entry — a high card says “come back to me in the higher suit,” a low card “the lower suit.” The two side suits in question are the obvious ones — never the trump suit, and never the suit being ruffed.
Reading it: the two obvious suits
“Higher” and “lower” mean the two remaining side suits, ranked spades-hearts-diamonds-clubs. If hearts are trumps and you are ruffing a club, the two candidates are spades (higher) and diamonds (lower); a high club asks for spades, a low club for diamonds. The signal is only as clear as the choice is obvious, which is why it works best when there are exactly two sensible suits to choose between.
Other moments it appears. Beyond giving a ruff, suit preference shows up when you cash a suit you both know is finished (the size of your last card in it points to your entry), and, in the odd-even discarding method, folded into a single discard. But do not go looking for suit preference on every card — most cards are attitude or count. Reach for it only when both of those are plainly meaningless.
The priority order, one more time
This lesson completes the set, so here is the full precedence in one place. On partner’s lead: attitude first, then count. On declarer’s lead: count first, then suit preference. On a discard: attitude first, then suit preference. Suit preference is always the last resort in its situation — a card is asking “which other suit?” only when it cannot sensibly be asking anything else.
A note on direction
Unlike attitude and count, suit preference is played the same way whether or not you use the upside-down method. High for the higher suit, low for the lower — for everyone. If a new partner says they play upside-down, that applies to attitude and count only; suit preference stays standard. This is a common point of confusion, so it is worth saying out loud.
⚠️ Common Mistakes:
Seeing suit preference everywhere. The most common error is reading a card as suit preference when it was plain attitude or count. Apply the priority order first; only when both are meaningless is a card pointing at a third suit.
Counting the wrong two suits. The trump suit and the suit in play are never candidates. The message is always about the two other side suits, ranked in the natural order.
Reversing it because you play upside-down. You do not. Suit preference is high-for-high, low-for-low regardless of your attitude and count agreement.
🧠 Memory Tip: High card, high suit. When you hand partner a ruff, the size of the card is a signpost: big card points up, small card points down — to the entry you want back.
Summary
Suit preference answers “which other suit?” — high for the higher of the two obvious side suits, low for the lower. It fires only when attitude and count are meaningless: most often when you give partner a ruff, where the size of the ruffing card points to your re-entry. It is the last item in every priority list, it never concerns the trump suit or the suit in play, and — unlike attitude and count — it is played the same way whether or not you use the upside-down method.