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A hand for coded 9s and Ts?


awm

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[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s8hkjt9d863ckt764&e=sa764hq83dkjt92c9]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

This hand came up yesterday at a sectional tournament. I was sitting east. After two passes, I opened an artificial 1 (showing a balanced or three-suited opening hand; we play a strong system). South overcalled 1NT (15-18), north bid stayman (2 from south) and then 2NT (invitational) which south bumped to game. ((while our bidding system is a bit weird, the auction and subsequent defensive problem could easily have been the same if I had passed or opened a natural diamond))

 

My partner (west) lead the J, standard leads and upside down carding. What's your plan for the defense?

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I am a simple guy... I am not going to play partner for Axx in ... partner has 5 (or 6) and I am going to play him for KJ10xx... and I had better start unblocking.. in case opener has the Q9x fortunately, partner cannot go wrong when I lead back the 7.

 

And, yes, as the topic header suggests, knowing that the J denied a higher honour would get me to switch to ... but my view is that, on the while, coded 9's and 10's are more useful to declarer than they are to the defence.

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[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s8hkjt9d863ckt764&e=sa764hq83dkjt92c9]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

This hand came up yesterday at a sectional tournament. I was sitting east. After two passes, I opened an artificial 1 (showing a balanced or three-suited opening hand; we play a strong system). South overcalled 1NT (15-18), north bid stayman (2 from south) and then 2NT (invitational) which south bumped to game. ((while our bidding system is a bit weird, the auction and subsequent defensive problem could easily have been the same if I had passed or opened a natural diamond))

 

My partner (west) lead the J, standard leads and upside down carding. What's your plan for the defense?

Its clearly correct to win the spade and return a spade. First the diamond switch only works if partner has Axx, which leaves south with exactly 3325 shape. This is very against the odds (it could work if partner has Ax and declarer makes a mistake, but why play for a parley?). Second, partner's spade length is 5 or 6 and his diamond length is less than 2 cards on average, which gives better than 5-2 odds on partner's card (if he has one) being in spades (the fact that you already know he has the JT of spades is biased information, and i don't think it changes the apriori odds).

 

But yes, 0 or 2 higher would help some here....

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