6-5 majors and strong

[inquiry]

Now, if he could filter the results to include only hands played by (say) star players, that would be of some use, even tho there are non-star players as good as many stars and at least a few stars whose stars should be revoked based on things I have seen them perpetrate (of course, maybe I live in a glass house in that regard, so I don't actually advocate star-ectomies :) :rolleyes: ) I don't think that this analysis can be done, however.

I can not filter hands by "BBO STARS", but I can use OKbridge database and filter players by lehmans that OKBridge publish for their players, or I can use BridgeBrowser built in emulator and calculate a lehman like number and filter by that. The question becomes, what lehman level would you think equates to bbo stars?

 

A couple of issues, some BBO stars have a fairly modest lehman. There is a lot of reasons for this, a big one being they play with students. Ohter stars have astronomical ratings. Would anyone with a estimated lehman at least as high as your, mike, be statisfactory? For what it is worth, that would eliminate any hand that I bid. :-)

 

But you have to be aware, not everyone with very high published ratings on OKBRIDGE or very high rating calculated based on play in BBO have any clue how to bid. Also, I already know (and it is not surprising) if opener is REALLY really strong, say one or two loser and lots of controsl, they all open 2C. So is there some range you would like to exclude. I can find thousands of hands (of course, the higher the requirement for lehman value, the fewer boards that will meet those requirements...but I can always search multiple database).

[mikeh]

. Would anyone with a estimated lehman at least as high as your, mike, be statisfactory? For what it is worth, that would eliminate any hand that I bid. :-)

 

My Lehmans, for the few times that I played on OK, never got over 51:))) I really only used it for practice with one partner who lived in a different city. One reason I quit was the intense focus on lehmans...I several times got rejected by tables on the stated basis that our lehmans were so low that the opps' lehmans wouldn't be improved by beating us and would take a real hit if we beat them... and these were players who were acquaintances of ours.

 

Plus the cheating: I do not know what it is like now, maybe they have done a good job cracking down, but I saw more than a couple of 70+ lehman pairs who were clearly cheating consistently.

[whereagles]

Why are you guys so picky with this 2-suiter issue? I tend to open them in 2♣ mostly because I like to have celling for 1-level openings, nothing more. They're so rare anyway.

[Guest Jlall]

However, are we any better off after 2♣ 2♦ (waiting) 2♠?

I would say yes, as you have described a stronger hand opening 2C then bidding spades hearts hearts than if you open 1S and bid hearts then hearts. You have shown the same hand type, and just a stronger hand in the second case.

 

But if he responds 4♠, can I pass any more safely than after the jumpshift auction where he corrects 4♥ to 4♠? I doubt it. Should he be bidding beyond 4♠ with Axx xxx xxxx xxx?

 

I would again say yes, you can pass more safely having opened 2C. The fact that you can still miss slam having opened 2C does not mean you are equally likely to miss slam in both cases. There must be some cases that partner will not make a move for slam after 1S-1N-3H-3S-4H- but would make a move for slam after 2C-2D-2S-2N-3H-3S-4H as the latter shows more strength and the same hand. Knowledge that partner has 3 spades and a little something and not a diamond cue will have more use to you than knowledge that partner has 2 spades or a bad hand with 3 spades that may or may not contain a useful card for you. Having described a stronger hand and knowing that partner will make a slam try more of the time that it's right because of that makes it safer to not go past 4S having opened 2C. Also there are some hands where partner will raise with 3 spades immediately after a 2C auction but would bid 1N over 1S (like your example hand).

 

I would definitely say that when the opponents do not interfere you are better off having shown your actual strength and rough shape (5-5+, or if you find a spade fit starting a cuebidding sequence) than having shown a potentially much weaker hand (like a king less) and rough shape. Also, partner will know immediately that slam is definitely in the game and will be able to make a double negative (either cheaper minor or direct 2H) to tell you he has nothing useful and will feel free to raise you with 3 trumps and something useful, and will make more accurate decisions on whether or not to go past game. With this hand I would say whether partner has 3 trumps or not is a big deal.

 

When the opponents do interfere however.... that is probably why opening 1S is so popular :D Against some people, 2C is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.