Meaning And Alerting Of Point Count Ranges In Precision

[pbleighton]

1) In Precision, the point count range is usually defined as 11-15. Is this more likely to mean "I open almost all 12s, and very good 11s, and a very occasional 10" - more or less the Rule Of 20, or does it mean one point down - I open almost all 11s, etc?

 

I realize people do all sorts of things, but what do you think is more common for Precision players?

 

2) My partner and I open almost all 11s, but do open some 10s as well. Should we alert this as 11-15 or 10-15?

[luis]

Hi pb,

 

First of all I'd like to point out that the answer to your question should be "it shouldn't matter" but it does, because regulations and some players have a very strange tendency to try to "ban" light bids specifically when they get a bad result after one, if the result was good they just comment how crazy you were to open that hand and smile....

 

I think that what an 11-15 range means very much depends on partnership agreements, in my 10-14 openings we open about 75% of the 10 counters and about 25% of 9 counters too. We also upvalue hands with less than 15 hcp to a 15+ opening bid and downgrade flat 4333 15 counters with queens and jacks to a 10-14 opening sometimes.

 

So I think that if opening bids show n-m HCP the "normal" meaning is:

We open all n+1 hcp hands without exceptions.

We open a majority of n hcp hands (about 75%)

We also open some n-1 hcp hands (about 25%)

 

I'd like feedback and opinions on this please.

 

I take this as normal and expect disclosure from a pair that by agreement follows an unusual style like 11-15 openings where some 12 hcp hands are passed. This should be disclosed since after counting 10 hcp in a hand that passed with 11-15 openings I'm sure to finesse the other hand for any missing or play to drop it if I know it's offside. Parnership style is an implcit agreement and should be disclosed....

 

What I don't like is that some pairs write 10-15 in their card just to be "allowed" to open with 10 sometimes and they normally pass with 11 or even 12! That's missleading, I understand they do that just because they have been contested by someone after opening a ten counter but that's not the way to go in my opinion.

[hrothgar]

Honestly, this is not an issue that I tend to worry about all that much.

My own "judgement" regarding opening hands does not use Work HCPs.

 

I prefer to value

 

A = 3

K = 2

Q = 1

J = .5

T = .25

 

Furthermore, MOSCITO uses very different opening strength for unbalanced hands versus balanced.

[The minimum strength for a balanced hand is significantly higher than an unbalanced hand] Also, many versions of the system require extra strength when opening a single suited hand with a major. For example, Paul Marston's version uses a multi-2D opening to show 7 - 9 HCP with a good 6 card major. Accordingly, opener's major suit rebid shows a good hand.

Finally, I upgrade hands where honors are in the long suits and downgrade hands with honors in short suits. As an example, I would happily open

 

ATxxx

KT9xx

xx

x

 

with a "constructive" 1H opening.

 

Holding

 

KQ

Qxxx

Qxxx

Qxx

 

I would either open 2D [preemptive, 4+ Diamonds, 4+ cards in either major] or pass, depending on vulnerability.

 

Thers no way to explain all of this using Work HCP, so I normally just say

"~ 9 - 14" with a lot of judgement.

[the hog]

I don't worry about this much either. Our card says 9-14, but there are some 9/10 counts we won't open, and there are some 13/14 counts that are worth 1C. Its a matter of judgement really.

[bearmum]

If you open with 10 points quite a lot I think you should alert the fact (ONLY my opinion :)