Posted 2013-January-10, 02:40
Thanks all. Had not got as far as considering East's position. Mainly because I normally play in an environment where weak 1N opener is the norm and as opponents you need constructive defensive methods. But Wyman's post returns me to that point.
On this hand, South is limited to 15-17, and North is limited to 0-7 (say). So the combined N/S strength is about 15-24, and the combined E/W strength is the complement, which is to say 16-25.
Not that points are the be-all and end-all of everything, but you MIGHT take a long term view that while a range of 16-25 does give some prospect for a game contract your way, it is sufficiently remote in frequency that you would do better to give up entirely on that prospect and pay off to those occasions, in the interests of maximising your ability to contest the partscore secure in the knowledge that when you bid with a very weak hand and happen to hit partner with some strength he is not going to go overboard. If it is any consolation, making your game in overtricks in a partscore contract is likely to be a better result than defending 1N, despite the lack of game bonus.
But I do perceive a problem if you want to have your cake and eat it, by protecting on ultra-weak hands and also expecting accurately to bid your game contracts. Presumably those who advocate protection on East's 5-count in this thread (or even yarborough as has been suggested) and on Wyman's more extreme 2-count, would also advocate protection had East held 12 or 13 points in an otherwise similar hand.
Granted that the location of most of the opposition strength is known to be in the 1N opener, and honours sitting directly over it are well placed and depress the minimum requirements for game, it remains the case that what is being recommended here is that East protects (with shape) on anything from a 0 count to say 13, and your combined values remain in the range 16-25, on the basis of which the direct seat hand is expected to co-operate with game tries on an intelligent basis, and I am not convinced that this is a reasonable burden to place on West. UNLESS, as I say earlier, you just give up on bidding games. Against a weak 1N opener your combined strength is 16-28, which rather puts a different complexion on the problem.
Psych (pron. saik): A gross and deliberate misstatement of honour strength and/or suit length. Expressly permitted under Law 73E but forbidden contrary to that law by Acol club tourneys.
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Masterminding (pron. m
s
t
r-m
nd
ing) tr. v. - Any bid made by bridge player with which partner disagrees.
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