Help
FrancesHinden, on Jul 19 2008, 10:31 AM, said:
ceeb, on Jul 18 2008, 08:52 PM, said:
If LHO has ♠AQxx the ♠J play seems superficially beneficial but how much does it really help?
Yes, it helps.
Win the SJ and knock out the ace of hearts.
West has to play something back... if it's e.g. a club we put the ace up and cash hearts, and now if West started with a 'normal' takeout double we don't need to guess diamonds, instead we play them from the top and if West was originally 4432 have 9 tricks, whilst if he was 4441 he will have to give us a spade trick
You're right. The jack can gain by obviating a guess. Assuming that the normal guess would be a diamond finesse, the J would gain when the doubler has AQxx, Axxx, xxx, Kx or AQxx, Axxx, xxxx, x.
As against that, I still don't understand the argument that LHO would overcall 1S on Axxxx and subsequently double with Axxxx, Axxx, Jxxx, -- (when the J play loses). Nonetheless, it may be that hands of that sort are less likely than the AQxx sort.
(I thought I had posted this yesterday.)