[Ayjay]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine was faced with a dilemma when he held this hand in first position. Nobody Vulnerable.

Qxxx
x
AQxxxxx
x

He didn't want to open 3D seeing the side spade suit. He decided to open 1D instead, since he was around 5 to 6 losers. He argued that it was unlikely that partner was void in diamond, 1.5% probability in fact, and the loser count was therefore quite valid. He didn't want to miss game facing a partner with a ten or 11 point hand.

As it happened partner responded 3C my friend rebid diamonds and his partner raised to 3NT having a singleton diamond going 3 off. 3D was the contract.

I myself would have passed this hand and waited for developments. Any thoughts?

[ArtK78]

Passing is normal. 3♦ is a reasonable second choice.

[Fluffy]

The power of the hand is meassured on many things, hands contain potential for making tricks playing in our suit, playing in NT and playing on defence, the 3 of them are different.


This hand only fits opening requirements when it comes to playing in diamonds, loser trick count is good to meassure that. However for defensive tricks and playing NT (which are normally calculated by High Card Point escales) this hand doesn't match the potential of a normal 1♦ opening, in fact it is way below.

So it is not surprising that when the final contract was not in diamonds the hand did poorly. (if partner had 4 spades the hand could do it well also, the hand has potential to make a lot of tricks, but a bad break or a good defence with the right cards can see your 5 small diamonds become losers due to lack of entries, so it can do very well or very poorly).

In general when opening very light you will want a 5-5 shape or better, you will still struggle if the final contract is NT, or opponents play and partner doubles, however with a 5-5 the most likely scenario is to have a fit and end up declaring a suit contract in one of your suits.


If you were 7-4 in the majors, a 1M opening would have better chances of success than 1m, since the final contract is less likely to be in NT.

[Ayjay]

Thank you for your thoughts. I would've thought that with 7-4 in the majors, a 3M or 4M bid would be more appropriate?

[hrothgar]

There's nothing wrong with wanting to open these sorts of hands at the one level.
However, if you decide that you want to, your best bet is to adopt a bidding system that explicitly supports it.
For example, play strong club or some such.

Trying to open these sorts of hands in a more standard system is going to lead to some real problems when partner bids to unmakable contracts or penalty doubles at the wrong time.

[HighLow21]

I agree. Passing is best. The likelihood that this hand will be passed out with a game on is infinitesimally small compared to:
(1) The probability that, if you open 1♦, your partner will bid too high without a fit and go down with nothing on for the opponents.
(2) The probability that, if you open 1♦, your partner will double the opponents based on the strength of your opening, only to watch the opponents make.

OR, alternatively, if you open 3♦, the probability that you will miss a good spade fit.

Sit tight. You can decide what to do when the bidding invariably comes back to you. This has so many advantages it's not even close, decision-wise.

[Lovera]

Ayjay, on 2014-March-01, 10:57, said:

Thank you for your thoughts. I would've thought that with 7-4 in the majors, a 3M or 4M bid would be more appropriate?

Le dichiarazioni di barrage (dal livello tre fino al quinto) hanno come mano tipo la 7 xx xx xx monocolore non essendo adatte quelle con altro colore dichiarabile (e'opportuno valutare le perdenti considerando vincenti solo gli Assi e i Re) dato che il punteggio e' relativo in questi casi e non esprime bene la forza.

[MrAce]

Lovera, on 2014-March-22, 05:14, said:

Le dichiarazioni di barrage (dal livello tre fino al quinto) hanno come mano tipo la 7 xx xx xx monocolore non essendo adatte quelle con altro colore dichiarabile (e'opportuno valutare le perdenti considerando vincenti solo gli Assi e i Re) dato che il punteggio e' relativo in questi casi e non esprime bene la forza.

Herkesin kendi lisanini kullanacagi forumlar var, bende o yuzden kendi ana lisanimi kullanmiyorum onlarin disinda.

[Cyberyeti]

Eerie echo of a hand I posted elsewhere on these boards from last weekend, Jxxxx, x, void, AKxxxxx. I opened this 1♣ and it worked out OK with partner holding ♠AKx. I would probably pass yours, but wouldn't criticise 1♦ too much. What was partner's 3♣ bid ? I would expect to be making game opposite many things my partner would bid 3♣on.

[Lovera]

MrAce, on 2014-March-22, 05:35, said:

Herkesin kendi lisanini kullanacagi forumlar var, bende o yuzden kendi ana lisanimi kullanmiyorum onlarin disinda.

May you translate in English please what have you said ? Thanks .

[cherdano]

3♦? "Trying to keep 3N in the picture"?
If I'd preempt, I would bid 4♦.

[mike777]

could live with 4 or even 5d opening

[Cyberyeti]

Lovera, on 2014-March-22, 10:20, said:

May you translate in English please what have you said ? Thanks .

It says "if you post in Italian, I'm going to post in Turkish", well probably it doesn't but I think that's the point it's making, there are foreign language sections to these boards, in the main sections everybody posts in English.

[neilkaz]

Cyberyeti, on 2014-March-22, 11:07, said:

It says "if you post in Italian, I'm going to post in Turkish", well probably it doesn't but I think that's the point it's making, there are foreign language sections to these boards, in the main sections everybody posts in English.

Great now I can learn Turkish as well as Italian here . Well I can understand most of the Italian and about none of the Turkish.

Anyhow open 3♦ or pass depending on whether it is OK in your partnership to preempt with a rather poor 4 card major in first seat.

[MrAce]

Lovera, on 2014-March-22, 10:20, said:

May you translate in English please what have you said ? Thanks .

I did not know you are good at English. So you are either trying to make a point known to god and you only, or you are just a troll since you are doing the same thing in other topics as well. Which is fine, it is also fine to have "love" words in your nick, please just do not use excessive "love" symbols, which is all i ask. We already have one here who self-employed herself for this job. One was already way too much

What i said in Turkish was close to what Cyber said, which is

Quote

there are foreign language sections to these boards, in the main sections everybody posts in English.

[Lovera]

MrAce, on 2014-March-22, 17:22, said:

I did not know you are good at English. So you are either trying to make a point known to god and you only, or you are just a troll since you are doing the same thing in other topics as well. Which is fine, it is also fine to have "love" words in your nick, please just do not use excessive "love" symbols, which is all i ask. We already have one here who self-employed herself for this job. One was already way too much
What i said in Turkish was close to what Cyber said, which is [/size][/color]

Capisco l' osservazione sulla lingua usata ma preferisco esprimermi in italiano per una maggiore padronanza ; per quanto poi a quanto detto sul tipo di dichiarazione non è un mio punto ma ripreso da S. Stayman nel suo sistema dichiarativo. Voglio solo dire che non voglio essere minimamente invadente o occupare spazi di altri ma sono contribuire ad una spero migliore informazione condividendo le mie conoscenze. Ringrazio e la saluto da Bari (Italia).

[MrAce]

MrAce, on 2014-March-22, 17:22, said:

So you are either trying to make a point known to god and you only, or you are just a troll since you are doing the same thing in other topics as well.

Troll it is

[Lovera]

Sud distributore. Tutti in zona. Cosa deve dire Sud ? Con: P RF74 C DF98754 Q - F 64 . Il grande problema dell'apertura! E' meglio iniziare l'offensiva con un barrage sono o e'meglio tacere? Ecco cosa hanno detto: Besse, Jais, Pariente (passo..mi manca la presa di sicurezza del 10 di Cuori); Filarski (1 Cuori..colore più'volte ripetibile); Trezel (passo ma in partita libera dico 3Cuori) ; Jacoby (1 Cuori).
Questa mano si presentò'nella sfida Culbertson -Lenz (contratto finale 7 Cuori) Massima da ricordare: Evitate di fare una apertura in barrage con un solido appoggio in un colore maggiore. ( Da "Il bridge dei campioni" di Jose' Le Dentu pag. 140 e 141 ).