Am I violating the laws opening this 2C?

[aguahombre]

Heh. I ran into my first "positive" in years last week. 2♣-2♠; 3♦-3♠; 4NT-5♠; 7NT needing a 3-2 spade break or a 3-3 diamond break. In a reasonable, but not great field (containing several "4NT is the only slam try" pairs), we were the only ones in a grand, and 3 were +720 (after, I assume, 2♣-2♦; 3NT). We sort of thought it was mindless and automatic, and hoped only to beat the people who stopped in spades for some reason. Apologies to our opponents, who got a zero for no sane reason.

 

One person actually asked us how we knew responder had the ♣A. "Uh, Blackwood?"

Double heh. Down here, with a shuffled deal, our hapless opponents encountered the same situation with the same two suits...also the only ones in 7NT.

 

Poor babies. After discovering the spades to be JT9XX opposite zero, declarer hooked KT tight opposite AQ7XX into the hand known to have the 5 spades. Unfortunately she also had JXX of Diamonds.

[Cthulhu D]

And remove that awful gambling 3N now that 3N becomes our 4m preempt.

 

Can I suggest another option? The biggest problem I have with Naymats is that it's pretty easy for forget because it's not frequent. It seems to me that it makes as much sense to restructure the bids so 3NT is the power major, 4X is natural. This has the added advantage of being much harder to forget. It gives you maximum space to explore slam as you have both 4C and 4D - I play 4C as a one under transfer and 4D as a slam try which probably isn't the best, but hey.

[blackshoe]

Kantar 3NT, if the major is solid, which it must be under the GCC (ACBL).

 

Responses (from Preempts from A to Z, Andersen and Zenkel):

 

4♣: Asks for a side K. Responder's 6♣ rebid then asks opener to bid 6 of his major.

4NT: asks for side queens. Can be used immediately, or after the 4♣ ask. In response to 4NT, opener's simple new suit shows that queen and no other; 5 of his major shows no side queen, 6♣ shows the queens of diamonds and the OM, 6♦ shows the queens of clubs and the OM, 6♥ shows both minor suit queens.

5NT: asks opener to bid 7 of his major if his suit can play for no losers opposite a void.

 

If I were going to play this, I'd want to come up with meanings for responses of 4♦, 4OM, and 4M (to play, presumably), at least.

[jdeegan]

:P I like your bid. In principle that sequence shows a no-loser 8 or 9 bagger and an outside ace. Imho, you are close enough.

[mycroft]

So, this weekend I saw another "strong" 2♣ opener (granted in the B game, but I would have thought...):

[hv=pc=n&e=sqhkqt985dkqj865c]133|100[/hv]Well, it's 3 losers...

 

Luckily partner shows up with [hv=pc=n&e=saj96h76d742ckqjt]133|100[/hv], so E/W weren't going anywhere past game, and N/S aren't going to preempt in a black suit to the sky and make it. Of course, they might preempt to the sky, get doubled by partner, and be pulled the first time to the -1 level.

[Wayne_LV]

[hv=pc=n&s=sat5hakjt9842d5c8&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=2cp2dp4h]133|200[/hv]

 

I love these hands! I open 2♣ and jump to 4♥ over any response from partner.

With stronger hands, I will make the normal 2♥ rebid and with weaker hands preempt 2,3 or 4♥'s.

After 2♣ 4M partner knows I have this type of hand, I'm going to make 4M opposite very little or nothing.

It doesn't shut partner out but suggests this is the maximum unless partner has some 1st round

controls in other suits.

 

I have had some players object to me "preempting" with a 2♣ bid. This is obviously not a preempt

but I have made the same bid with weaker hands. Is it correct that if a player believes their

hand to be "strong", then it is acceptable to open 2♣?

 

2♣ openings are marked as "22+ or 8.5 playing tricks" on our CC's, if asked do we need to spell this out?

I am a strong advocate of 2♣ showing either 22+ hcp or within a trick of game in hand. The problem with opening 2♣ on a hand with 5 losers with the intent of jumping to 4♥ over any response is the 2♣ opening bid can be more easily overcalled and with only 12 hcp, this is a very likely event. If you know you are going to go to 4♥ just open 4♥, which (playing rule of 2 and 3) would show 5 or 6 losers and would not confuse partner. If partner can cover 4 or 5 of your losers, then partner can explore slam over the 4♥ opening bid, otherwise partner would pass and hope for a good outcome.