Rule of 20

[Califdude]

Regarding Marty Bergen's Rule of 20, in the recap available on the net he specifies that vulnerability should not be a factor. But how about majors vs minors? The rule of 15 slants opening weak hands in favor of stronger spades. So, do you consider having spades, or majors in applying the Rule of 20?

thanks for your replies. :P

[rogerclee]

Open a major more aggressively than a minor, rule of 20 only applies if your hand is relatively pure.

 

But something tells me from your recent series of posts that you seem to be very fixated on wanting to follow lots of bridge rules which involve points and things you can count up to and subtract from. Bidding judgment and hand evaluation are much more valuable, and I suggest you stop preoccupying yourself with these sorts of things and just learn to play bridge well, which takes time and is not easy.

[peachy]

I don't know of a Rule of 15 (what is it?) that affects how the Rule of 20 is applied.

Lots of people tack on "negatives" and "positives" to the Rule of 20 and give the hand another look instead of blindly using Rule of 20 for borderline hands that do not have 13HCP. Having majors is a "positive". Other "positive factors" include having quick tricks, having all points in your long suits, having a singleton or a void, maybe tens-nines to stuff up suits, and so on. The "negative factors" include having no major suits, having soft honors, having isolated honors, having bad suits (often goes together with isolated honors) etc. I am not an authority on Bergen Rule of 20 but have used it successfully, with adjustments.

[NickRW]

Rule of 20 applies to whether or not to open and can be applied to any seat at the table.

 

Rule of 15 (hcp+spades) is a rule for deciding whether to open specifically in 4th seat only (when the high cards are evenly distributed around the table, as they will be when you have a borderline opener in 4th seat it is always good to have the highest ranked suit).

 

As has been suggested, these are rules of thumb and one needs to apply them with a modicum of judgement and common sense. For example, this is a point short on rule of 20

 

♠KJTxx

♥AQ9x

♦x

♣xxx

 

Well, whether or not you decide to open this is a matter of judgement, but it does have a lot going for it - decent suit quality - if you open a spade because of the relative ranks of the suits you will always be able to show your second suit over a minor suit response, intermediates (9s and 10s) in the sort of places where they may be useful - the suits are majors. One where you might want to break your rule of 20.

 

This one - well a lot of people will open it - but it has some undesirable features despite technically beating rule of 20 by a point.

 

♠Kxxx

♥QJ

♦Axxxx

♣Qx

 

No intermediates at all, quite a lot of the "stuff" is in the short suits, rather than the long suits where they will be the most use and, in particular, the QJ doubleton is a feature a lot of folks specifically downgrade by a full point. The spade suit cannot be guaranteed to be shown in a standard system over a 2♣ response (a 2♠ rebid after a diamond opening would be a reverse and show a stronger hand), but the diamonds are rather weak and not the sort of quality were one would want to bid this suit twice. I guess some would open 1♦ and hope for the best, others may pass a bit disgruntled, and some who play the weak NT may choose that poison. Personally I'd pass it

 

But you learn this sort of thing through reading, talking to people about hands, and lots and lots of practice.

 

Nick

[mike777]

Rule of 20 applies to whether or not to open and can be applied to any seat at the table.

 

Rule of 15 (hcp+spades) is a rule for deciding whether to open specifically in 4th seat only (when the high cards are evenly distributed around the table, as they will be when you have a borderline opener in 4th seat it is always good to have the highest ranked suit).

 

As has been suggested, these are rules of thumb and one needs to apply them with a modicum of judgement and common sense. For example, this is a point short on rule of 20

 

♠KJTxx

♥AQ9x

♦x

♣xxx

 

Well, whether or not you decide to open this is a matter of judgement, but it does have a lot going for it - decent suit quality - if you open a spade because of the relative ranks of the suits you will always be able to show your second suit over a minor suit response, intermediates (9s and 10s) in the sort of places where they may be useful - the suits are majors. One where you might want to break your rule of 20.

 

This one - well a lot of people will open it - but it has some undesirable features despite technically beating rule of 20 by a point.

 

♠Kxxx

♥QJ

♦Axxxx

♣Qx

 

No intermediates at all, quite a lot of the "stuff" is in the short suits, rather than the long suits where they will be the most use and, in particular, the QJ doubleton is a feature a lot of folks specifically downgrade by a full point. The spade suit cannot be guaranteed to be shown in a standard system over a 2♣ response (a 2♠ rebid after a diamond opening would be a reverse and show a stronger hand), but the diamonds are rather weak and not the sort of quality were one would want to bid this suit twice. I guess some would open 1♦ and hope for the best, others may pass a bit disgruntled, and some who play the weak NT may choose that poison. Personally I'd pass it

 

But you learn this sort of thing through reading, talking to people about hands, and lots and lots of practice.

 

Nick

I play rule of 15 given partner opens onjunk in first andsecond seat....these are easy openers...but many top posters open on even less in fourth seat.

 

I think one of them said why not open...i play the hands better than other table.

[barmar]

Rule of 20 (or the Rule of 22, which I prefer) seems to me to be be heavily oriented towards playing in a suit. When you're short in the majors, the most likely game you're going to end up in is NT. In that case I prefer to have full values for my opening, because the shortness is a liability in NT.

 

So I'll often open a 5-5 with 10 HCP if at least one of the suits is a major, but less often with 5-5 in the minors (good intermediates might sway me to open).