Posted 2012-March-21, 07:12
With 4 cards you have enough ways to show pretty much anything you like, even in a NT contract with 3 suits available. For example you might define:-
9742 = strong signal for high suit
9724 = weak signal for high suit
9472 = positive for high -> middle, negative for low
9427 = positive for high -> middle -> low
9274 = positive for high -> low, negative for middle
9247 = positive for high -> low -> middle
7942 = positve for middle -> high, negative for low
7924 = positve for middle -> high -> low
7492 = strong signal for middle suit
7429 = weak signal for middle suit
7294 = positve for middle -> low -> high
7249 = positve for middle -> low, negative for high
4972 = weak preference for high -> middle (or no real preference)
4927 = weak preference for high -> low (or no real preference)
4792 = weak preference for middle -> high (or no real preference)
4729 = weak preference for middle -> low (or no real preference)
4297 = weak preference for low -> high (or no real preference)
4279 = weak preference for low -> middle (or no real preference)
2974 = positve for low -> high -> middle
2947 = positve for low -> high, negative for middle
2794 = positve for low -> middle -> high
2749 = positve for low -> middle, negative for high
2497 = weak signal for low suit
2479 = strong signal for low suit
and I would expect all "good players" to play at least some subset of these, even if only 2479 and 9742. Such carding agreements are hardly Novice-Beginner fodder though! Where you have only 2 suits to consider, such as a suit contract, you have even more scope. I doubt very many have explicitly discussed every possible such carding sequence but rather just use general rules - the sequences above are produced from such a ruleset, for example.
(-: Zel :-)
Happy New Year everyone!