[jillybean]

Dealer: East Vul: NS Scoring: IMP

♠ 875 ♥ K73 ♦ AQJT94 ♣ 2

West North East South

 -     -     Pass  1♦
 


If you routinely open this type of hand 1x, should you announce light openings?
Please quote any relevant laws when responding, thanks.

[blackshoe]

This is a matter of SO regulation, not law. That said, I think the answer to your question is no, at least in the ACBL (and probably the EBU, too).

[david_c]

I guess jillybean is referring to this ACBL regulation:

"If it is your partnership style to routinely open hands with fewer than 11 HCP ... the opponents must be pre-alerted."

I suppose if you take this literally then you'd think you have to pre-alert if you would open this hand. I can't imagine that was the intention of the regulation though, because this hand is a very normal opener. And even if you wouldn't open this one, it's not too difficult to find examples of 10-counts that just about everyone would open. But I'm not living in ACBL-land so I don't know how it is interpreted.

Apart from this, you might expect a description of how light you open to be on the CC (not so likely in an online game), and opponents are entitled to know if they want to ask, but otherwise there's no reason to say anything.

[blackshoe]

I stand corrected. The ACBL alert regulation does indeed say that.

A pre-alert is, however, not the same as an announcement.

[kenrexford]

I think that there is a difference between routinely opening with less than 11 HCP's and routinely opening "this type of hand" with less than 11 HCP.

The difference is whether partner will play you for a minimum of 11 HCP's (and you view your hand as worth that) or whether partner will play you for a lower minimum. When you open this hand (assuming this to be a minimum), you are opening it because you would view the semi-solid suit and good shape as worth 11 HCP in playing strength, requiring no alert, IMO.

[pbleighton]

Quote

I think that there is a difference between routinely opening with less than 11 HCP's and routinely opening "this type of hand" with less than 11 HCP.

The difference is whether partner will play you for a minimum of 11 HCP's (and you view your hand as worth that) or whether partner will play you for a lower minimum. When you open this hand (assuming this to be a minimum), you are opening it because you would view the semi-solid suit and good shape as worth 11 HCP in playing strength, requiring no alert, IMO.

I agree. I think that the guideline is unclear, however. There are lots of players who robotically open Rule of 20, and throw some good 6 card suit hands (no 4 card side suit) in for good measure, opening 15-20% of 10 counts. What's the limit? 30%? 35%? Clearly 50% is too much. My comfort level playing light openings would be about 25% wouldn't require a pre-alert, but much more than that would.

As for this hand, it's a great hand, clearly having as much playing strength as the average 11 count.

Peter

[kenrexford]

pbleighton, on Jun 15 2007, 07:05 PM, said:

Quote

I think that there is a difference between routinely opening with less than 11 HCP's and routinely opening "this type of hand" with less than 11 HCP.

The difference is whether partner will play you for a minimum of 11 HCP's (and you view your hand as worth that) or whether partner will play you for a lower minimum. When you open this hand (assuming this to be a minimum), you are opening it because you would view the semi-solid suit and good shape as worth 11 HCP in playing strength, requiring no alert, IMO.

I agree. I think that the guideline is unclear, however. There are lots of players who robotically open Rule of 20, and throw some good 6 card suit hands (no 4 card side suit) in for good measure, opening 15-20% of 10 counts. What's the limit? 30%? 35%? Clearly 50% is too much. My comfort level playing light openings would be about 25% wouldn't require a pre-alert, but much more than that would.

As for this hand, it's a great hand, clearly having as much playing strength as the average 11 count.

Peter

It seems to me that a fair estimate of the number of 9-10 counts opened by "nromal" folks would be:

The percentage of times a hand is not 4333, 4432, or 5332,

multiplied by

the percentage of times that you have at least three protected Aces, Kings, and Coupled Queens (coupled with any other honor) to form 9-10 HCP.

Someone should be able to do that math, or a rough estimate of it.

[helene_t]

IRL, you describe your opening criteria on the front of your CC. "Rule of 19" may correspond to this hand. Since most people don't look at the CC at BBO (at least I don't so I assume other don't either) it's fair to anounce light openings. But this is something that should be stated in the tourney rules, including a definition of "light".

If I were to make such statements in my own tourneys, I would probably say "please pre-alert if you routinely open lighter than rule of 19".

[blackshoe]

Rule of 19, or 18, is a good guideline, I think. The WBF specifies rule of 18 for their contests. The EBU uses rule of 19 or 11 HCP at level 2 (essentially beginner level), and rule of 18 at level 3 (roughly equivalent to the ACBL' General Chart). The ACBL doesn't use this method, unfortunately.