Re: bad judgment or bad luck?

On May 9, 2:45 am, henrysun...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> On May 8, 5:09 pm, Adam Beneschan <a...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On May 8, 1:46 pm, henrysun...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
>
> > > In the auction at hand, what would responder do over 2s with
>
> > > QTxx
> > > Qx
> > > Axx
> > > xxxx
>
> > > Surely this wouldn't be anything other than an automatic pass over
> > > 2s.  It could, I suppose, be argued whether pass, 3c, 3d, or 2nt
would
> > > be a better description of this hand over a balancing double, but
> > > surely a natural 2nt couldn't be considered wrong.
>
> > Sure it could.  IMHO passing is a standout, even at IMPs; it's hard to
> > imagine that, unless RHO is really underbidding some sort of freak,
> > that 2NT is going to work better than defending.  And 2NT has the
> > potential to convert +300 into some minus score.  Maybe my intuition
> > is wrong here, but I think this hand (particularly this trump holding)
> > screams "defense" as loudly as the crowd at an NBA playoff game.
>
> >                                -- Adam
>
> Adam, I am sure that pretty much everyone would, in fact, pass 2sx.
>
> Still, this hand only has 3 defensive tricks (2 spades and the AD).
> If partner, trained like a good lemming, reopens on any hand with a
> singleton, so that your hands are. e.g.
>
> QTxx
> Qx
> Axx
> xxxx
>
> x
> Kxx
> KJxxx
> Axxx
>
> you might be able to take 2 spades, 1 heart, 2 diamonds, and 1 club,
> but if diamonds are 4-1 then you might lose a trick in the wash.
>
> I suppose I could have given passer
>
> KTx
> Qxx
> Axx
> xxxx
>
> to make my point clearer, however.
>
> Henrysun909

The whole concept i believe of playing 2NT in competition not as
natural is that for 2NT to be right you assume that you will take
exactly 8 (possibly 7) tricks on offense while opponents can take 8
tricks or more in their suit. This is unlikely when opponents have the
opening lead in notrump.
While those hands exist they are rare and the case where both
contracts would go down occurs far more frequently than when both
would make. It is therefor usually better to take a chance and play
for opponents to go down when 2NT natural would be an option.
Will you get tough decisions? Sure you will. But this is true whether
you play 2NT as natural or artificial. But playing 2NT artificial
helps in many other cases and directs you more often to the right
decision playing for a close double since you can not play a contract
of 2NT and if partner would have raised 2NT (natural) you may get
enough compensation from defending.

Rainer Herrmann