How do you open and bid this (playing precision)

[Flame]

I take it back, should open 1s

[Chamaco]

With regard to sacrificing:

 

I will certainly admit that in your auction you may be better placed now than I would have been, as you have shown you 6-5 shape. This is the point however - YOU have shown your 6-5 shape. Your partner knows more about your hand than you do about his. Who do you think should make a decision to sacrifice then? It makes sense that the person who knows more takes that decision. This is a little simplistic as many other factors enter into this, but it should give you a starting point for further thought.

Thanks Ron.

 

I still try to recall my thought process for sacrificing and it was more or less something like the following:

 

1) it is true I described my shape (6-5), but my pard does not know *within the boundary of these shape* the ODR of my hand. My hand is worthless in defense, *after opps showed a double fit*. It is not unrealisitic to expect that my hand can bring *at most* one defensive trick, with heart likely to run.

 

2) I tried to figure out a hand by pard that could defeat 5 hearts but I could not. Maybe the key of the hands are the clubs and pard maty have a trick there, yet in figuring out the possible hands I evaluated that in most cases, if pard had a trick for me, either 5!s was a good sac or it made...

But again, that's why I am not an expert ... (I wish ZAR points could fix this for me but I doubt... hehe) :blink:

[keylime]

To substantiate Ron's view, the great expert Marshall Miles in his text "Competitive Bidding for the 21st Century" states this:

 

"Two-thirds of all contracts bid in competition is in the major."

 

I could never think of bidding 1♦ on that hand, especially if using variable NTs. Get the boss suit into play, own it, and be happier for it.

[inquiry]

This hand has provoked a lot of discussion, but it comes down to this, swap the spade Ace for the smallest spade in south;s hand (15 hcp), what do you open playing precision? I beat you will open 1♣. Now remove the spade queen, down to 13 hcp, what do you open (♠AK987 ♥xx ♦KQJT9x)? Anyone tempted at 1♣ again. I would. So, in fact the hand, as drawn with its 11 hcp is close to a maximum non-1♣ opener.

 

As far as opening 1♦, this is not done to hide the ♠ suit. IT is to allow you to highlight it. Because when you bid it again, it draws a road map for your partner. If you were to reverse ♠ and ♥ on this hand, I would open 1♥, but I open 1♦ precisely because I have a rebid-plan. I plan on bidding up to 4♠. If the majors were reversed, what would you do over 4♠? Now you would have no plan bidding 5♥ would just have to be wrong, as partner would have to take preference at the six level. And I anticipate a lot of bidding on this hand, which is what occurred.

 

Rules are made to lead the hopeless, helpless, thoughtless. Each hand has its own little nuances. This one, the quality of the diamond suit, the nice spots in teh spade suit all argue for normal, long suit first. Followed by bidding out the distribution. I even object to the characterization of this powerhopuse as a minimum, it is far from a minimum.

 

ben

[the hog]

(♠AK987 ♥xx ♦KQJT9x)? Anyone tempted at 1♣ again.

 

No! Prefer not to open 1C with shaded high card requirements, regardless of playing strength. Been there, done that, paid the price!

 

One purpose of playing a big C system is that you can jump around and not show overwhelming HCP strength - a crucial factor when partner decides to bid on - possibly as a sacrifice, or to penalise the opponents. Pd won't be happy to find you with these cards if you open 1C and he doubles a high level contract.

[whereagles]

Just a small comment... I'm adept of opening 1♣ on a good 6-5, despite having only 14-15 hcp. The point is hcp are a bad evaluation method for long two-suiters, so some judgement should be exercised.

 

I'm not alone on this. CC Wei also advocates it, and he shows a hand where Jeff Meckstroth opened 1♣ on

 

♠ AKxxxx

♥ x

♦ AKxxx

♣ x

 

reaching an easy 7♠ because he quickly found out pard had the correct fillers.

 

As for relay precision, I played that for two years in international matches against opponents who frequently bid on nothing (or even less, lol). Though the 1♣ auctions did sometimes get crowded, when comparing scores, it happened again and again that we bid and made a slam or two that opponents missed, especially those in the minor suits. From experience, I say that relay precision works well in practice, though it requires homework, a steady partner and constant bidding practice.

[the hog]

On the other side of the coin, I well remember a hand on which my partner opened a chunky 14 count with a 15+ C.

 

After relaying the hand out fully and finding every honor card in his hand, the only suit left was x ?x suit in his hand opposite AKQx in mine. At this stage I was too high to ask for for the J in that suit, but as I had a full count of his hand -14 points exactly, I bid the grand "knowing" he had to have the J. He didn't and that was one off.

 

He never shaded his openings again.

[whereagles]

How come he opened 1♣ and you were asking the questions? :P Was that one of the sequences where a minimum balanced 1♣ opener passed control to pard?

[the hog]

Reverse relay!

[whereagles]

Ok. What was opener's hand, then?

[keylime]

FYI, the Mrs and I only open 14 HCP forcing clubs if both five card suits have tha AK in them, with 10 and 9 in one/both suits. Otherwise, the ACBL gets really testy about HCPs due to the paragraph about "artificial and conventional responses and rebids" over strong openings (15+).