Not all strong balanced in strong club

[Kungsgeten]

I've been toying with the idea of playing some kind of strong diamond in 1st/2nd seat non-vul. Many American pairs seem to play 2NT as strong, even though they play a strong club. Do you have experience regarding benefits of this style?

 

In a strong diamond system it might make sense to put these strong hands in the nebulous 1C opening. Say something like:

 

1C = 13-15 NT / 19-20 NT / Minor + major two-suiter

1D = 16+ (not 19-20 NT)

1M = 10-15

1NT = 10-12

2m = 10-15 no major

[PrecisionL]

Ever since I switched to a strong ♣, I have never played a strong 2NT opening. It is easily handled in a strong ♣ or strong ♦ system by making opener's 1st rebid forcing for 1 round:

 

Example playing 14-16 NT

1♣ - 1♦ - 1NT = 17-19

1♣ - 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ (0-5 hcp) - 1NT = 20-21

1♣ - 1♦ - 2NT = 22-23

1♣ - 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ (0-5 hcp) - 2NT = 24-25 and so on ...

 

This scheme frees up an opening 2NT for other usages: Maybe 5-5 minors or 5-5 majors, or a weak pre-empt in either minor.

 

Opening 2NT is known to be a slam investigator killer.

[straube]

Well, they call the 2N opening the slam-killer and yet Meckwell seem to like that they don't have to worry about that range after 1C interference.

 

You can do anything but if you put 19-20 in with your 1C you have to account for that hand in all of your follow-ups. For example 1C-2m is challenging enough without throwing in the 19-20 balanced.

 

You're opening this only NV? Why not just open 2N with that range? Adam and Sam's Recursive Diamond uses it as weak minors but if you want to sacrifice that for constructive hands.....I always feel like constructive hands should come first if there's a choice.

 

Ask Adam what he thinks.

 

Personally, I'm wondering why you seem to avoid strong club. I think strong club can handle nearly all of the 16+ hands comfortably but the 1D opening has such room that I'd want to sacrifice other openings to make it work. If I remember right, Adam likes both openings but favors strong club.

[DinDIP]

The big advantage of playing a strong two notrump (despite the difficulties it poses for constructive bidding) is that it takes one range out of your strong opening and so avoids the "contiguous range" problem. Playing Polish Club with sfi we eventually reverted to a 21-22HCP 2NT opening. (Interestingly, it occured substantially more often than weak minor two-suiter.) However, the real benefit was that we had separate ranges after our 1♣ opening: opener was either 18-20 or 23+. That meant that auctions like 1♣-1♠-2NT became much easier because responder knew that when opener was 23+ he would move again, so his slam tries assumed an 18-20 hand. (We made this change after a board in the final of a national championship we lost when I bid slam with a 14 count after sfi had rebid 2NT. I did so because his range was 18+, so he was likely to pass with 19 counts where the opps would have an easy auction to slam. Alas sfi had upgraded a 17 count and I was not up to running the T with Kx opposite QT8xx.)

[sfi]

Alas sfi had upgraded a 17 count and I was not up to running the T with Kx opposite QT8xx.)

So either a failure of imagination on your part or too much on mine. ;)

[Kungsgeten]

Well, they call the 2N opening the slam-killer and yet Meckwell seem to like that they don't have to worry about that range after 1C interference.

 

You can do anything but if you put 19-20 in with your 1C you have to account for that hand in all of your follow-ups. For example 1C-2m is challenging enough without throwing in the 19-20 balanced.

 

You're opening this only NV? Why not just open 2N with that range? Adam and Sam's Recursive Diamond uses it as weak minors but if you want to sacrifice that for constructive hands.....I always feel like constructive hands should come first if there's a choice.

 

Ask Adam what he thinks.

 

Personally, I'm wondering why you seem to avoid strong club. I think strong club can handle nearly all of the 16+ hands comfortably but the 1D opening has such room that I'd want to sacrifice other openings to make it work. If I remember right, Adam likes both openings but favors strong club.

 

If 19-20 NT is in 1C then I was thinking that some kind of transfer responses would make sense (similar to T-Walsh). Then when uncontested we will be able to show 19-20 NT at 1NT most of the time, so not much of a slam killer.

 

The reason for NV only and strong diamond instead of strong club has to do with what we play now, and system regulations. The idea is that we continue to play Swedish Club except 1st/2nd seat non-vul. Switching to mini-NT here makes the system more aggressive, which might make sense here.

If we want to continue to play Swedish Club (which we like), then it will be hard to play nebulous diamond because of system regulations. Its okay though to have a nebulous club (because the 1C Swedish Club opening is already nebulous) and a strong diamond. Its pretty stupid, but anyway :)

 

The systems would probably be:

 

V and 3rd/4th NV:

 

1C = 12-14 (semi)NT / 12+ 4-4-1-4 or (43)15 / Strong

1D = 4+ unbalanced, 11-20.

1M = 5+ 11-16.

1NT = 15-17

2C = 6+ or (41)35 or 4405, 12-15

2DHS = Weak.

2NT = Sound club preempt or bad major preempt.

3C = Great club suit (usually 7 cards) and stopper on the side.

3DHS = Sound preempt.

3NT = Gambling.

 

Non-vul 1st/2nd:

 

1C = Nebulous. Including 13-15 NT and 19-20 NT.

1D = Strong.

1M = 10-15

1NT = 10-12

2m = 10-15

2M = Weak.

2NT = Club preempt or bad major preempt.

3C = 5-5 minors, 10-12.

3DHS = Preempt.

3NT = Gambling.

 

Some ideas over club opening:

 

1C--

1red = Transfer

..Accept = 13-15 NT or unbal with 3-card support.

..1NT = 19-20 NT.

..2M = 13-15 NT with 4 card support.

..2m = Nat + 4oM.

..oM = 4 card support, unbalanced.

..3C = 5-5 minors, 13-15.

1S = No major.

..1NT = 13-15

..2m = Nat unbal.

..2M = 19-20 NT and 5 card major (unless we open that 1D).

..2NT = 19-20.

..3C = 5-5 minors, 13-15.

1NT = GF relay or diamonds.

..2C = Balanced.

..2D = Clubs.

..2H = Three-suiter.

..2S = Diamonds + hearts.

..2NT = 5-5 minors

..3C+ = Diamonds + spades.

2C = GF clubs.

2X+ = Not sure.

[straube]

Could you just play Swedish Club and swap your weak and strong NT placements? Your 1N would be 12-14 instead of 10-12 but you like your system and it would avoid endless rewrites for the sake of 1/4 of the hands.

Maybe your 1M openings would prevent the swap but your club would be a little more like a strong club which would please me :)

[blackshoe]

Romex Forcing Club:

 

10-12: 1NT

13-16: 1♦-1M-1NT

17-20: 1♣-1♦-1NT

21-22: 2♦-2M-2NT

23-24: 1♣-1♦-2NT

25-26: 1♣-1♦-2♥-2♠-2NT (forcing to game)

27-28: 2♦-2M-3NT (forcing to 4NT, Romex Stayman and transfers are on)

29-30: 1♣-1♦-3NT (forcing to 4NT, Romex Stayman and transfers are on)