ArtK78, on 2013-September-09, 06:08, said:
An interesting hand came up yesterday in the Philadelphia Sectional Swiss Teams. We were using duplicated boards so everyone was playing the same hands. It is not 100% analogous to the hand in this thread, but there are some similarities.
At no one vul, I held:
----
AKQJxx
Axxx
KJx
My RHO opened 1♠ in first seat. This is not the type of hand that I would want to defend 1♠x, but I could not conceive of overcalling 2♥ on these cards, and the thought of overcalling 4♥ did not appeal to me, since there were several possible places to play and slam chances were significant. So I doubled. It went ALL PASS.
When the smoke had cleared, we had +500. Partner held
AQJxxxx
xx
x
xxx
4♥ has a lot of play, but it is not cold, especially on a heart lead. In fact, I heard of some declarers in 4♥ that failed. I don't think our declarer did as well as he could in 1♠x, so perhaps we should get only +300. Still, it is a significant plus score. My teammate, playing in 1♠x on the same auction, managed to MAKE 7 tricks on particularly brutal defense (I will spare you from the details).
I don't know if there is any lesson to be learned from this, but I found it to be interesting.
I have never,ever,been happy defending a 1 level contract,it smacks of cowardice and a lack of enterprise and I always complain to my
partner if a one level suit bid is passed out when he could have taken some action. The great 60s English player,Maurice Harrison-Gray had a dictum "Contest those part scores" He was echoed by another great modern day master Ron Klinger.
"Never allow the opponents to play in a low level suit contract. The penalty needed to make it worthwhile may not justify the missed
game or slam that could be your way."