Tenace - A player holding a broken honor sequence as: A Q [x...] K J [x...]
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K J 9 3
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? ? ?
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? ? ?
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8 7 4
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Let's assume North is
dummy
in a Notrump contract. North's holdings includes a King-Jack
broken suit sequence. Tenace holdings such as this offers the opportunity
to attempt a finesse or endplay.
Here's a bidding
tip to consider when holding tenaces. Imagine partner opens 1C and
you are holding either of these hands:
#1.
K 10 2
#2.
10 8 2
K 9 3
Q 9 3
Q 10 4 2
A Q 8 3
9 7 6
9 7 6
Both hands have 8 High Card Points and a 3=3=4=3
distribution, however hand #1 has a balanced honor distribution while hand #2
contains Diamond tenances.
On hand #1, the responder should consider bidding
1 Notrump, forcing an opening lead to a balanced hand if the side ends up in a Notrump contract.
On hand #2, the responder should consider bidding 1
Diamond - as we can see, most of the honors are in the Diamond suit and if the
side bids Notrump, the opener should probably bid Notrump with appropriate
stoppers.
Also see
Finesse,
Suit Combinations and books on
Finesse
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