some recent strong two suiters

[inquiry]

Four voters so far. Vote total for 2♣so far:

1 - IIII----------------------------------80%

2 - IIIII--------------------------------100%

3 - IIIII--------------------------------100%

4 - III-----------------------------------60%

5 - no love

6 - III-----------------------------------60%

7 - I-------------------------------------20%

8 - no love

9 - I -----------------------------------20%

 

 

(the above includes my votes. I open 1, 2, 3 2♣, all others 1M)

[inquiry]

Ok.. i think i can entice some 2♣ openings on one or two of these 15 point hands... if not, we begin to have a solid definition of what hands are "good enough" for 2C with major two suits (tricks? losers? controls? suit quality?)...Again these are bbo hands from october 2006.

HAND A vvvv

♠AKQJ953  ♥KQ9432   ♦void  ♣void

HAND B vvvv

♠AKQ106/♥AQ10875/♦83/♣Void

HAND C vvvv

♠KQ862/♥KQJ1062/♦Void/♣A3

HAND D vvvv

♠AKQ863/♦KQJ92/♦5/♣10

HAND E vvvv

♠AQ9874/♥AKQ53/♦2/♣5

HAND F vvvv

♠AKQJ104/♥AJ1085/♦2/♣9

HAND G vvvv

♠AKQJ8/♥AJ1097/♦2/♣86

 

i will start. Only hand A will I open 2C.

[HeartA]

To open 2C with those hands, I have to have agreement with my partner that 2C opener may not guarantee defensive power. When I put pd's dbl to my another major (hopefully I have the chance to bid2 majors), he has to be aware that my hand is offensive only.

 

Under this agreement, hand D is OK, too. As long as pd has a few cards in majors, a game has good chance.

 

Anyway, it is not my current style to open 2C on these hands.

[awm]

I wouldn't open 2♣ on any of those hands. I think on hand one I would open 1♠ and rebid 6♥ though. ;)

 

While the playing strength is there on some of them, there are a lot of other issues such as partner playing me for defense if the opponents intervene, the awkwardness of showing both suits if hearts are longer, and partner pushing towards slam with some 13-count that includes no useful cards (yes such hands exist when I have void in one suit and stiff in another).

[Winstonm]

The answer I give on these problems is systemic so take it for what it is worth.

 

The 2C structure I developed for me and partner uses 2D as an almost universal querry to the 2C opening; after which game-forcing two suiters can be shown this way:

 

3C=club/heart

3D=diamond/heart

3H=majors

3S=spades/diamonds

4C=diamonds/spades

4D=5/5 minors or 6/6 minors

4H=5/6+ minors

4S=6+/5 minors

 

Cheapest preference/raise shows the weakest hands. In-between step is lower/lower and higher/higher with some degree of slam interest.

[Winstonm]

It has been suggested that strong two suiters both in the majors are better to open 2♣ than strong two suiters with both minors, and maybe with one major and one minor

 

A) held exactly 20 hcp

B) had at least 5 cards in both majors

 

For the month of October, these are the 9 hands were dealer matched these requirements. Of these hands, shown below, they were opened 1C once, 1H 4 times, 2C 10 times, 1S 26 times, 3S once, and 4H once (most were in team games). Here are the hands.

 

Rate the ones you would be happy to open 2♣ and the ones you would be happier to open 1♠ (or 1♥). I have placed them roughly in the order of strongest to weakest, but I didn't labor over doing so.

 

[hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][hv=d=s&v=b&s=sqj9842hakqj5dvoidcak]133|100|Scoring: H/S 1[/hv][

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7