irishwolf wrote: Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:14 pm
I will say it again, when down by 4 or more points and you have an excellent partner, YOU PASS! I am not saying that most would also assist. But that is not ELITE PLAYING. I hope you are listening Ed?
So read what really good partnerships do:
When you do you will get a lot of cheap Loners. Of course less than really good players would assist. I have that agreement with my regular partner DO NOT ORDER ME FROM 2ND WHEN DOWN BY 4 OR MORE. And guess what, we do extremely well, and call it a CONVENTION IF Y0U WILL. Average players, well why not assist. Do you think down 7 to 2 a good player is going to Pass? You have to be Kidding. Just what sort of hands do you think I would be passing on? It is the difference between average and good.
Oh and do this Lefty says, "IF I were down 9-1 or 9-3 I would normally lone this hand, but ..." More non sense! Your results will be worst than the other posted loner.
IRISHWOLF
I definitely agree with the idea that S2 should order less often when down a certain amount of points or more. Even with a bad partner I'll do this. Sometimes you just gotta hope to get lucky. For example, At 0-0 I will order this from the 2 seat (assume 9H upcard):
But If I'm down 7-2, I back off hoping my P has that loner.
That said, even down 7-2, with a strong P, I'm ordering up with R+1 from the 2 spot. I mean with R+1, what are the odds that S4 really has that loner?? It just doesn't feel high enough to matter. And this is especially true in a tough game where S1 donates well. BTW, up 7-2 that's a really bad non-donate by S1. No trump, 1 ace should be an auto-donate at that score no questions asked.
But I still agree with your idea Wolf. Certainly if I have L+1+A and your my P I will back off when we are down 4 or more now. And I certainly won't call with 2 low trump + 2 aces or 2 low trump + an ace, nor will I make thin calls like R+0+2 off aces at that score. So yeah, I'm fully behind the philosophy, and I'm going to adjust my play accordingly for you in the future Wolf. I just don't think it applies to R+1.
BTW, I assume that when our team is down 4 or more you never want me ordering up your Right even IF I have 3 trump (unless I have a loner). For example, say the JH is the upcard and I have this:
You want me to pass, correct? I can totally get behind that convention. But if we're in a tough game where S1 donates properly, I probably should just order it up.