Help
I recently came across some good players who declared that they played journalist leads against NT. I have never heard of this so I looked it up. Curious to get opinions of these types of leads. I have read that 3/5 works better against trump contracts and 4th best works better against NT contracts.
Any and all help appreciated.
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leads question journalist leads
#2
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Posted 2023-June-04, 17:57
Iirc, journalist leads use the lead of a Jack to deny a higher card and a 9 shows the 10 while denying any higher honour
The examples given for journalist leads use hands where the information is valuable to partner, who knows whether to continue or switch. The downside is that the same information is known to declarer.
Say you are in 3N with dummy holding Qx and you hold Axx. LHO leads the Jack. Normally you play the Queen, since ducking doesn’t do much good and standard leading methods leave open the possibility of KJ10x(x) etc on your left. When the Jack denies, obviously you duck,
You won’t often find stiff king on your right (although I had the happen once…I held Axxx rather than Axx and LHO held six to the J109) but Kx is not as rare, and by playing low from dummy, you can
Hamman wrote ‘I think “Jack denies” is the stupidest lead convention ever invented’*
Since Hamman would likely be the experts’ consensus choice as the best player of all time, I suggest his views should count for something😀
P.277 of At The Table
The examples given for journalist leads use hands where the information is valuable to partner, who knows whether to continue or switch. The downside is that the same information is known to declarer.
Say you are in 3N with dummy holding Qx and you hold Axx. LHO leads the Jack. Normally you play the Queen, since ducking doesn’t do much good and standard leading methods leave open the possibility of KJ10x(x) etc on your left. When the Jack denies, obviously you duck,
You won’t often find stiff king on your right (although I had the happen once…I held Axxx rather than Axx and LHO held six to the J109) but Kx is not as rare, and by playing low from dummy, you can
Hamman wrote ‘I think “Jack denies” is the stupidest lead convention ever invented’*
Since Hamman would likely be the experts’ consensus choice as the best player of all time, I suggest his views should count for something😀
P.277 of At The Table
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
#3
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Posted 2023-June-04, 18:32
Journalist NT Honour Leads (ie 9 and above) work amazingly well at club level, since third hand always knows what to do and many of the declarers will not use the information against you as much as they should. They work less well at world class level so if you plan on playing in the Bermuda Bowl anytime soon you might want to give them a miss. The original pip leads for Journalist are Busso, also knows as attitude leads. However they combine just as well with the classic 4th best if you do not want to make that change. I am using this structure with my current partner.
Whether Strong 10+Weak Jack is a good or bad convention can fall on whether the missing honour card is in Dummy's hand or Declarer's. I tens to play bridge to give my partner as much information as possible, both in bidding and card play, so I perhaps worry less about the leakage than some others will. I do think the structure is better than the somewhat more popular 0 or 2 higher. Current theory say that Rusinow is better than either, so if you want to devote a deal of effort and plan to reach a high level, that might be a good avenue for exploration.
Whether Strong 10+Weak Jack is a good or bad convention can fall on whether the missing honour card is in Dummy's hand or Declarer's. I tens to play bridge to give my partner as much information as possible, both in bidding and card play, so I perhaps worry less about the leakage than some others will. I do think the structure is better than the somewhat more popular 0 or 2 higher. Current theory say that Rusinow is better than either, so if you want to devote a deal of effort and plan to reach a high level, that might be a good avenue for exploration.
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