Opening 5-3-3-2 hands in Acol

[helene_t]

However it's worth observing that there are good players around (not just 'unenlightened' ones) who prefer not to have a 5-card major in their 1NT opening or at the very least prefer to look at their hand before deciding whether to open 1NT or not. 

 

Don't buy into the BBO forum view, which seems to be that 1NT on any hand vaguely in range and even more vaguely balanced is always the right choice. That approach works best only when playing with a pick-up partner whose declarer play you don't trust.

Lol, you should play more online, Frances :) Btw an additional case for opening 1NT is that you don't trust partner to bid correctly after your suit opening. Or that you expect opps not to have agreed what defense against 1NT they play.

 

But of course you are right, in France nobody opens 1NT with a 5-card major, and the WJ2000 book discourages it as well. When the issue comes up in the bidding polls of the Dutch "Bridge" and "IMP" magazines, the experts are typically divided 50-50.

[NickRW]

Maybe it is worth me doodling some of my thoughts on this. Currently I play 1N only has 5M if weak and the values are scattered. We also play 2C as a puppet to 2D (Gladiator they used to call it years ago - nobody seems to use that term these days). 2D is Stayman guaranteeing enough for 2N and interest in a major.

 

I like the 2C response as, over a weak NT anyway, there seems to be stubborn, significant minority of boards where the partnership that can stop in 2D scores very well. Probably not much of a problem over a strong NT as there are far fewer times when running from 1N is necessary. However, using 2C this way precludes the possibility of a fully fledged 5 card stayman - or so it seems to me.

 

But, I am thinking 5 card hearts can be hidden in the 1N opening using this structure. A 2H response to 2D shows 4, could be 4 spades, could be a 5th heart. To which

2S/3S = did you have spades as well

3H/4H = you hit me

2N/3N = I was only interested if you had 5 hearts.

 

This seems to work OK except for the case where responder is 4/3 in the majors and not enough strength to investigate both possible fits.

 

Any thoughts? I've thought about Keri - but I play with my teenage children who are going to forget it - they like playing the game and will sit for a hour while I delineate my latest plan - but they won't read about the game - or remember complex response structures.

 

Nick