Why do people play 15-17 over 14-16 w/T-Walsh

[steve2005]

I suggest NT range split of 12-14/15-16/17-19. Yes REALLY nice balanced 11's are also opened. With a 2 pt range for 1N you wont need many INV bids which seems to be all the rage.

 

This mean 1♣ is opened as much as possible where you have your best bidding system. The 17-19 range occurs less often 12.7% compared to 15-16 5.9%.

 

I find 17 pt hands are underrated often worth upgrading.

 

12-14 is 36.8% ignoring 11's.

 

not sure if numbers are right , but their relative order is.

[fromageGB]

I suggest NT range split of 12-14/15-16/17-19 ... With a 2 pt range for 1N you wont need many INV bids which seems to be all the rage.

I have played this for years and if you do have a sequence where opener needs to rebid 1NT with 12-14 and 2NT with 17+, I think you need something funny to split the 19 off from 17/18. My sequence is when responder has denied a 4 card major, so I treat the reverse in hearts - 1♣ - reply - 2♥ as a sort of Kokish demanding 2♠ from partner. Now 2NT is the 19 hand, with normal continuations, while 3♣ shows the strong x4x6 shape.

[steve2005]

My sequence is when responder has denied a 4 card major, so I treat the reverse in hearts - 1♣ - reply - 2♥ as a sort of Kokish demanding 2♠ from partner. Now 2NT is the 19 hand, with normal continuations, while 3♣ shows the strong x4x6 shape.

 

like, but not sure u need to show 4♥if p denied. do you mean you bid 3♣ with 4♥ nut dont promise 4♥?

[fromageGB]

like, but not sure u need to show 4♥if p denied. do you mean you bid 3♣ with 4♥ nut dont promise 4♥?

What I meant was that if I had a 17+ x4x6 shape I would make a natural reverse of 2♥. I would also bid 2♥ with a balanced 19 count. Partner bids the 2♠ relay, and with the balanced hand I bid 2NT and all normal from there - game, slam, minors or whatever. However, with the reversing hand I bid 3♣ over his 2♠ which tells partner the shape, even though I know there is no chance of a heart fit. This allows him to make a better judgement of whether his holdings are suitable for a NT contract. If not, we play in clubs at some level.

[awm]

I really would not trust Pavlicek's data for this sort of analysis. It has a lot of selection bias, by which I mean the following:

 

Take the 1nt vs Pass examples. Many of the 1nt openings on 11-counts are hands where an expert chose to "upgrade" into a 12-14 range. These are likely to be much better than average 11s. It follows that this data tells almost nothing about the merits of opening average balanced 11s, nor does it say anything about the merits of an 11-13 range.