[Echognome]

Scoring: MP

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1. Do you open as dealer?

2. Suppose you open 1♦ (make the hand slightly better if you do not open) and partner responds 1♥. Do you prefer the style where you bid 1♠ or where you bid 2♥?

3. Suppose the auction begins:

1♦ - 1♥;
2♥ - 3♣;
?

What's your call now?

[jdonn]

1. No
2. 1♠
3. 3♥ (this is the only wtp of the set)

[pooltuna]

1) not usless I agree to a style that opens this hand

2) 1♠ partner can have 4♥ and 4♠

3) 3♥ presumably this is on the bottom side of our opening hands and 3♣ was a game try

[mikeh]

1. No...not close

2. 2♥, because I won't want to pass 1N by him and for me the sequence of 1♠ then 2♥ is forward going...by no means forcing but partner is allowed/encouraged to bid again with a suitable maximum opposite my full-value 4=3=5=1 hand.

3. 3♥...is there any other choice?

[Phil]

Pass, but only because we are vul at MPs.

2♥. By bidding 1♠ all you get is a possibly better partial in spades. Pulling 1N to 2♥ shows about an ace more than this.

3♣ confirms hearts, but this hand sucks on a trump lead, so hopefully I'm ahead of the field with my opening. I can even see this getting passed out so any plus seems pretty good to me.

[inquiry]

1. Do you open as dealer?

I generally open 25 Zar point hands when holding four spades. But i do some plus/minuses to decide. The minus here is too many Jacks, my spade suit is weak. The plus side, I have the ten of of spades and diamonds. I would probably pass this one, but I have been known to open similiar ones.

2. Suppose you open 1♦ (make the hand slightly better if you do not open) and partner responds 1♥. Do you prefer the style where you bid 1♠ or where you bid 2♥?

Non-problem. I raise to 2♥

3. Suppose the auction begins:

1♦ - 1♥;
2♥ - 3♣;
?

What's your call now?
None-problem, I bid 3♥.

[Echognome]

As many I'm sure could surmise, I opened the hand. Mainly due to the great texture in all of my suits. I have both the T and 8 of spades behind the J. I have the T87 of diamonds behind the AQ. I thought the hand was worth a minimum opener.

[jdonn]

Phil, on Sep 21 2010, 04:49 PM, said:

2♥. By bidding 1♠ all you get is a possibly better partial in spades. Pulling 1N to 2♥ shows about an ace more than this.

By bidding 2♥ all you get is a possibly better partial in hearts, no? Maybe you'd have a better argument with a 13 count, but with a 10 count it's not like partner will invite game on hands with 5 hearts where game would be good if he knew we had 3.

Btw bidding 1♠ does two other things. We get to a possibly better partial in notrump or we get to a possibly better partial in diamonds. Maybe I'd choose 2♥ if I could but 1NT or 2♦ can still be right.

Two other unlikely scenarios in favor of 1♠: Partner passes 1♠ and we stay lower, or partner rebids 2♥ anyway which we are happy to pass on our subminimum when he would have bid more had we raised directly.

[jmcw]

1. Yes
2. 2♥
3. 3♥

[655321]

I would only open this hand w/r.

Justin discussed what to rebid on these hands in this post.

[aguahombre]

nothing wrong with passing 1NT after a rebid of 1S. But I will take the extra whatever which makes this an opening bid. The given hand isn't.

[nigel_k]

1. 1♦ opening is ok but I wouldn't do it
2. Raise to 2♥ because I expect hearts to be the best strain very often and I'm too weak to bid a delayed 2♥.
3. If 3♣ is showing values or length in clubs then it's a wtp 3♥. If it is more like a help suit try then you can bid 3♦ to show some interest.

[MFA]

1. Pass. But I open in my usual precision context.
2. 1♠. I like playing 1♠ then 2♥ as not showing extras in this specific sequence 1m-1♥-1♠. So I bid 2♥ over 1N. If it would show extras then I don't have a strong opinion but would probably prefer raising to 2♥ rather than bidding 1♠.
3. 3♥. Partner's 3♣ shows 5 hearts as I play it, btw.

[hanp]

Guess what, I agree with pass, 1S and 3H.

[Echognome]

I was off my rocker on this one.

I opened, bid 2♥ and bid 3NT over 3♣! I blanked that 3♣ is a game try.

Anyway, partner bid 4NT and there we rested.

♠A
♥KT964
♦K6
♣AK872

[hanp]

fwiw I play 3C as a slam try and would have bid 3NT playing that.