Weak Jump Overcalls
I believe it is generally understood that a weak jump overcall should be at least a six card suit. There does seem to be a trend amongst experts that it is OK to make a jump overcall on a decent five card suit.
In a recent tournament RHO made a WJO. Declarer assumed this was at least 6 cards . Having five cards between the two hands and holding the Ace,thus placing LHO with two. Declarer ducked the first round, won the second round and took a finesse, knowing that if it lost, LHO would not be able to lead partners suit. In fact RHO had a five card suit so LHO was able to lead a third round of partner's suit and beat the contract.
If the partnership agreement is that a WJO can be a 5 card suit, should this be alerted on the basis that it is not the normal treatment?
In a recent tournament RHO made a WJO. Declarer assumed this was at least 6 cards . Having five cards between the two hands and holding the Ace,thus placing LHO with two. Declarer ducked the first round, won the second round and took a finesse, knowing that if it lost, LHO would not be able to lead partners suit. In fact RHO had a five card suit so LHO was able to lead a third round of partner's suit and beat the contract.
If the partnership agreement is that a WJO can be a 5 card suit, should this be alerted on the basis that it is not the normal treatment?
Comments
That a weak jump overcall might be a 5 card suit is fairly standard to me, certainly if it's at the two level under favourable conditions. It doesn't feel sufficiently unusual to require an alert. And a player can always check, if they'd asked about the bid and the possibilty wasn't mentioned I'd think that was misinformation.
But "unexpected meaning" is quite a subjective term. In some fields it might be considered alertable.