Handling Light Openers in a Precision System

[mtvesuvius]

If you open 1M with as few as 8 or 9 HCP, how do you distinguish between the light openers and the legitimate 13/14 HCP openers?

 

For example:

 

Axxx

Qx

AQx

AKxx

 

Partner opens 1♥ and LHO bids 1♠... How can you determine the strength of partner's opener?

[awm]

There isn't a magic bullet here. You have an opening range of roughly 8-15 and you want to distinguish the 8-11 from the 12-15 in competition. It's the same problem more standard bidders have when the opening is 11-18 and you want to distinguish 11-14 from 15-18. You just make a forcing bid, then cuebid to establish a game force. Sometimes you have to make a quantitative call later and risk getting too high (or make a conservative pass on a misfit and risk missing something). Basically you bid as if you played 2/1 but you have a king less (and opener a king more). Obviously you are at a disadvantage with certain point totals and an advantage with certain other point totals (i.e. 9-23 becomes easy, 16-16 becomes easy, but 13-19 becomes annoying whereas in 2/1 13-19 is easy but the other two ranges can be annoying).

 

On the given hand I'd start with 2♣ (forcing). If partner bids 2♦ or 2♥ then I'll try 2♠ next to establish a game force. Then I can agree a suit (if we seem to have a fit) or try a quantitative 4NT etc.

 

One thing that helps a bit is that these limited openings tend to have their probability distribution tightly focused around the average. So with an 8-15 range, partner usually has 10-11 points. If you play partner for this, you will often be right and can't be too far off.

 

On the other hand, an 11-18 range has 11-12 as its most likely point total. If you play partner for this though, you may be woefully underbid if partner has a max (as many as six points more than the most common total).

[whereagles]

I once devised a 2/1 scheme that went like this:

 

1M 2♣ = invitational support (sort of Drury) or natural (GF in clubs)

 

Now opener would bid 2♦ most of the time, which would allow responder to bid 2M, showing his invite at a low level. Example:

 

1M 2♣

2♦ 2M

pass = I have a lousy 8-11 hand

3x = trial bid with a decent 12-13 hand

4M = max hand, accepts invite

 

You can figure out/tweak the rest. Using 2♣ as semi-drury is the the point.

 

This doesn't help with your hand in particular, but does solve your problem in other circumstances. With the given hand I would double, so as to keep auction as low as possible.

[glen]

You can look at the approach of ETM TOPS:

 

ETM TOPS

 

In particular, see "Three Way Negative Doubles" - if you play it, you get the added bonus of putting "three ways" on your cc.

[hrothgar]

If you open 1M with as few as 8 or 9 HCP, how do you distinguish between the light openers and the legitimate 13/14 HCP openers?

 

For example:

 

Axxx

Qx

AQx

AKxx

 

Partner opens 1♥ and LHO bids 1♠... How can you determine the strength of partner's opener?

The first question that I would discuss with partner is what opener's jump rebids show.

 

Look at auctions like the following

 

1♥ - 1♠

3♣

 

1♥ - 1♠

2NT

 

1♥ - 1♠

3♥

 

One of the most important things to discuss is how much shape rebids like 3♣ shows. (Many folks require at least 5-5 shape for the jump rebid and force all 5-4 hands to work through some other response)

[hanp]

You may or may not have a problem on this hand, but I think it is clear to bid 2C first and see if you can learn more about partner's hand.

 

In general I'd say that you will reach some ridiculous games with this opening style and you have to be ok with that. You should hold back on slam bidding which means you will miss some good slams. By opening 1M with a wider range you will lose some accuracy, especially in competitive auctions, and that is unavoidable.

[dake50]

Force with 2C and let partner show min/middling/max. In this auction I actually luck out as X ->D but never without DTs, gets partner's minimum always accepting 2D. Any else is off to slam.