bill1157

While we are on the subject of extreme weak-2's, how do people feel about opening a weak 2 with a 5 card suit? What criteria would you have for this action? Bill

Playing bridge for money has some obvious benefits besides making a living (which is unlikely anyway). I used to play in a 2 cent game a few years ago and really learned alot. I was playing with and against players who were much better than i could on my own (2 of them decided a few years ago to try duplicate because it "looked like fun" and they now have 5,000 and 3,000 points respectively) Anyway, the individual ACBL tournaments on Bridgebase closely mimic playing bridge for money, so i would suggest playing in those until you are doing well, then try money bridge. Bill

Thanks all for the comments: I was north and my hand: Kx.AQJ9x.AKTx.xx, I felt that 3 top losers made 5D unlikely and I hoped to survive 3H. Anyway, this was with a new partner who had earlier not opened a weak 2D because he had a weak side 4 card major. In spite of my strength, perhaps my best call is 4d over 3c? Bill

[hv=d=s&v=e&s=sxhtdqjxxxxcqjtxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] bidding: 2D-(3C)-3H-(P)//?

As opening bids become weaker, the NT range will drop (16-18 NT presuposes opening 13+,15-17 suposes 12+) so if you open balanced 11-13 counts, it would make sense to play 14-16 NT

IMHO system is far less important than partnership chemisty. By that i mean, are we both trying to communicate, not mastermind and not test partner too much? I recall a sectional swiss teams i played in years ago with a good player i had never played with or against. I overslept and only arrived 15 minutes after game time. we had no time to discuss anything, but went on to win. After that event we played a few times, after getting our system straight and never again achieved anything. I credit our win to communication and planning, definitely not to system

"I would open xxx AQJxxx x Axx and I would probably pass Jxx Kxxxxx Q AJx. I might open the second but for sure the first hand is better, and I can think of much more extreme examples." Yes an extreme example would probably be the hand that originated the whole discussion. If that can be opened 4th seat, i cant see the problem with opening Jxx Kxxxxx Q AJx in any other seat!

"Jxx Kxxxxx Q AJ is a poor shapely 11 count. xx AQJxxx x Axx is a nice shapely 11 count. There's a difference." are you saying you would not open the first hand?

Poor but shapely 11 count sounds like "good 11 count" to me. Good players may be able to pass with decent 12 counts because the field they play in will lose to them anyway. I have seen some great players open very weak hands in good competition (i.e. Bermuda Bowl) For the less experienced players opening on the decent 12 count is essential if they are to be competitive with the better players.

My feeling is that the weak pairs are weak largely because they do not open decent 12 counts, so dont be suprised if partner has only 8 pts on this. I would open against a good pair quicker than i would against a bad pair