[paulsim]

Hi all,

If you are defending against a NT contract and your partner led

When you return the suit, you play:

1a.- Highest with two cards remaining

2b.- Original 4th or low from 3+
J652: if you had to play the Jack on the first round, return the original 4th: the 2

J652: if you played low (2) now return low with three or more cards remaining: the 5


Is that all true so far?

2.- When you are defending in a suit contract: same rules apply?

3.- Does it affect whether you play 2/4 or 3/5 against suit contracts when returning the suit?


Thanks all
Kind Regards,
Paul_S

[Stephen Tu]

 paulsim, on 2024-October-30, 07:06, said:

If you are defending against a NT contract and your partner led

When you return the suit, you play:

1a.- Highest with two cards remaining

2b.- Original 4th or low from 3+
J652: if you had to play the Jack on the first round, return the original 4th: the 2

J652: if you played low (2) now return low with three or more cards remaining: the 5


Is that all true so far?

Mostly true. On your last scenario above, it depends on the layout of the hand, fairly often you need to deviate and lead the jack, in situations where you need to retain the lead (lest declarer duck to partner, then partner has to get you in again to lead the suit a third time), or in situations where it can't hurt to lead the jack and make it easy for partner to cash out the suit and not guess other possible layouts where he has to do something else.

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2.- When you are defending in a suit contract: same rules apply?

Vs. suit similar except it's more often high from even remaining, low from odd. Rather than NT where people do things like "original 4th" from originally 5+ suits, or just always low from original 4+ suits.

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3.- Does it affect whether you play 2/4 or 3/5 against suit contracts when returning the suit?

No, those are opening lead agreements, this situation is usually called a "present count" agreement.

[mycroft]

In NT, long suits take tricks; unless the wrong hand is on lead. 5-card suits are great for "take tricks".

So, with 3 is you play your highest to avoid blocking the suit. The fact that it signals "3 cards" to partner is an added benefit, of course!

The expectation with 4 is that you should be able to unblock even if you use low to signal, and partner now knows what to do (knowing you have 4).

Stephen has shown one of the times you "are smart, rather than automatic" - the long suit only takes tricks if we clear the stoppers.

Another one is something like KJT4 (or even K984) where the "expectation" is wrong - if you return 4th best, you might not be able to unblock after partner clears the suit.

Counting declarer's hand (assuming partner has 5) will tell you when it matters. Counting declarer's hand might tell you that partner can't have 5, in which case yet another thing to think about is who needs to be on lead once your side takes the fourth trick!

In a trump contract, long suits tend not to take tricks (they get trumped), so unless you're going for a tap attack, it's less important to be able to unblock the long (and useless) suit than to ensure partner can work out how many tricks you're taking in that suit before the ruffs start. Hence Stephen's "high from even, low from odd" - partner should be able to work out between 2 and 4.

[paulsim]

Two more questions if you let me:

Third hand "high"

It's advisible to play: Ace then King to show dubleton honor, right?

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Partner leads low: playing Ace then King we show bare AK? Playing suit and NT?

is that right, is that right vs both NT and suit contract?

But what if other dubleton sequences:

QJ Third hand Jack or Q?
JT J or T?
T9 9 or 10?


B.- Leads: which card? would it be different in NT vs suit?

Leading QJ and QJ2: is the Q in both cases?

leading JT / JT2 / JT62 : J then T shows 2 or shows 3+?
Let's say, you lead Jack and then what card? present count?

lead T9/T93/T932: Lead the T, then what next?


thanks all, very gratefull

[Stephen Tu]

 paulsim, on 2024-October-31, 06:05, said:

Two more questions if you let me:

Third hand "high"

It's advisible to play: Ace then King to show dubleton honor, right?

Partner leads low: playing Ace then King we show bare AK? Playing suit and NT?

Playing AK out of the usual order shows something unusual you want to message partner, it doesn't always have to be AK doubleton specifically, it's situational depending on the hand. Vs suit, it might be showing doubleton and wanting to ruff the third round and looking for suit pref for partner's entry. But it might also be to like clarify suit preference if you also have little cards and are going to return one for partner to ruff the suit he led.
Vs NT, playing A then K would usually be a request for partner to unblock, e.g. you are defending 1nt-p-3nt, partner leads low, and for once manages to find your AKJTx suit. Dummy tracks with 2 small. If partner has 4 small you want to drop declarer's doubleton Q. But if partner led from Qxx, you want him to unblock so you get your tricks immediately.

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But what if other dubleton sequences:

QJ Third hand Jack or Q?
JT J or T?
T9 9 or 10?

These you have to always play low from touching as normal.

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B.- Leads: which card? would it be different in NT vs suit?

Leading QJ and QJ2: is the Q in both cases?

leading JT / JT2 / JT62 : J then T shows 2 or shows 3+?
Let's say, you lead Jack and then what card? present count?

lead T9/T93/T932: Lead the T, then what next?

These you always lead highest from sequence, unless you are playing Rusinow. Only playing rusinow distinguishes between length; vs suit at rusinow you lead 2nd from sequence holding 3+ (unless partner bid the suit where you revert to "standard"), and high from doubleton. Vs NT, some adv+ Rusinow leaders only lead 2nd best from 4+ suits.
2nd card is often present count but some combos/hands may require deviations (to quash declarer's now possible singleton 9/T or whatever).