[Hanoi5]

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West deals, white vs red. Where will your bidding take you and where would you prefer to be?

[gwnn]

I would be happy to play 2♥ or something like that, but I would open 1N from east and force to game from west. life is sad (64% of the time, at any rate). Sometimes I play 2♦ as a major two-suiter, then I would play 2M.

[mike777]

pass by west then 1nt by east and end up in 3nt.

[aguahombre]

We will get to 3H, I think. I will pass, then punish East for correctly opening 1NT by responding 3D as a major 2-suit invite.

[inquiry]

You didn't say if this was matchpoints or imps. That might be important because you might want to risk 3NT needing 3-3 clubs at imps if vul. I wouldn't but some would. After all, they might not lead diamonds.

At matchpoints or imps, I would want to play in a part-score in spades. The lower the better. I would, in fact, land in 2♠ by the following auction...

Pass - 1♣
2♥ - 2♠
Pass

Where 2♥ shows five+ spades and four+ hearts and weak hands (good 4 to very bad 10 hcp). This hand is about average. If East were to try for game, West would accept.

[aguahombre]

bravo for the foresight to open one club. I know I wouldn't be that smart at the table.

[han]

East would open 1NT, west would show a GF with 5-5 in the majors and east would bid 3NT.

[gordontd]

aguahombre, on 2011-September-08, 22:49, said:

bravo for the foresight to open one club. I know I wouldn't be that smart at the table.

Yeah, it's a really clever idea to open your long strong suit.

[gordontd]

gwnn, on 2011-September-08, 16:54, said:

life is sad (64% of the time, at any rate).

Success rates to be a bit better than 36% - J10 tight is good enough too.

[rhm]

Hanoi5, on 2011-September-08, 16:46, said:

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West deals, white vs red. Where will your bidding take you and where would you prefer to be?

2♥ showing a two suiter, with ♥ and another suit and less than opening bid strength.
East (with good judgment) passes.
2♠ is of course an even better contract.

If you do not play this convention East will open 1NT and you should end up in 3NT or 4♠.
3NT is by far the best game, but will go down several if not.
4♥ is terrible.

Rainer Herrmann

[gwnn]

gordontd, on 2011-September-09, 03:30, said:

Success rates to be a bit better than 36% - J10 tight is good enough too.

oh yes. now if I ever make a sloppy claim, lamford will never allow it

[inquiry]

aguahombre, on 2011-September-08, 22:49, said:

bravo for the foresight to open one club. I know I wouldn't be that smart at the table.

I guess you mean this as some kind of slam at me, at least I CERTAINLY take it that way. Therefore I feel compelled to respond to this slight of my "honesty".

For the record (just in case someone views your opinion should affect the WAY I bid), my system uses a 14-16 1nt opening bid and I play reverse flannery by responder (if you want to double check either statement, you can check the inquiry2over1 system that is posted on the web-- google it, no spaces). The East hand is "only" 15 hcp, but surely everyone would evaluate this hand with a strong SIX card suit worth more than 15. I rate it at least 17 hcp, and actually a little higher. So it is too strong for my 1NT opening bid, and hence I CAN NOT OPEN it 1NT like you would. So what? Perhaps your problem is you don't upgrade hands, or perhaps you play 15=17 and that is why you are not smart enough to bid it correctly. But I am smart enough, and honest enough to bid these "Where will your bidding take you" problems according to "my system."

[whereagles]

I would probably bid

1C 1S
3C 3H
4H

but I'd prefer to play 3NT, of course.

[jdeegan]

I guess my oldfashioned SAYC would get to 3NT.

P-P-1♣-P
1♠-P-2♣-P
2♥-P-2NT-P
3♥-P-3NT- all pass

Third seat you might easily choose to open the semi-balanced 15 HCP hand 1NT. Personally, I would almost always choose one club because of its lead direction value. Even so, there are a variety of tactical situations that might, imo, call for a 1NT open.

[shyams]

With a previous partner, I would not open 1NT with the East hand simply because it was 2-2 in majors.
If I had a (32)26 with a 15 count, I would have opened 1NT and partner would find a gadget to force game in majors. Due to this gadget, my partner would get most annoyed if I had no 3-card major.
My bidding would probably have gone: 1♣ - 1♥; 2♣ - 2♥ all pass.

Nowadays, playing with irregular partners, I would open East hand 1NT and probably reach a 3NT contract.

[MickyB]

It would be opener's decision whether to play 2♣ or 2♠ opposite 5♠4♥, so I would play 2♣ at IMPs but might well play 2♠ at MP.

Of course, oppo might well protect with 2♦ if we tried to stop in 2♣, in which case I would expect responder to bid again to show his fifth heart and opener to give preference to 2♠.

[JLOGIC]

Say the auction goes p p 1N p 2H p 2S p 3H, 5-5 majors GF. I think east is definitely supposed to pass that if you would open 5-5 majors 10 counts white first seat. Reminds me of a hand in a world junior teams where I passed smolen, DID NOT WORK lol, I think I even posted it here.

If west had a way to show 5-5 invite he should probably do it opp a 3rd seat white/red NT.

BTW I love opening the east hand 1N in third seat white/red, it is a great preempt with 2-2 majors and possibly no defense and you never have a slam, and 1C then 2C is pretty anemic. And it is a great feeling when it goes 1N all pass, they lead a heart, dummy hits with a random yarb and you make 90 vs their game. 1N just seems to have so little downside and so much upside. In first seat it would be different to me, since choice of games situations and slam situations are very important.

[JLOGIC]

I like and play the Ben methods over 1m p 2H, I would even suggest that he use 2D/2H as the bids over 1C so that you can stop in 2H with the invite hands, unless he has a good use for 2D as a passed hand. But even without playing them 1C 1S 2C 2H 2S p is fine opp a passed hand. If you are uncomfortable rebidding 2C, I don't blame you, I would be too, but bidding 3C is a lot with this hand. The auction would probably go 1C 1S 3C 3H 3S(???) 4S over that.

All games are playable here obviously, but I would prefer to be in a low level partscore if I could get there, that said when both people have reasonable hands and it's just a misfit its often the case that you will get a little high.

[MickyB]

JLOGIC, on 2011-September-10, 06:57, said:

I like and play the Ben methods over 1m p 2H, I would even suggest that he use 2D/2H as the bids over 1C so that you can stop in 2H with the invite hands, unless he has a good use for 2D as a passed hand.

Surely it's better to use 1C-P-2C to show both ranges. This gets you all that and stopping in 2C. You can bid either 1NT or 3C with hands that might otherwise bid 2C without much issue. I play this by an unpassed hand too, we use 1NT as a forcing club raise but if that's not an option then using 2D for that is fine. You get some incredible slam auctions too - eg 1C:2C, 2D:3C = 5S5H club shortage and maximum and you are off to the races.

[aguahombre]

To Inquiry:

Indeed, this 15 is a "KNR" 17.15, which I would not have been smart enough to figure at the table. But I would guess it to be worth 16+.

Indeed, I was unaware of your 14-16 NT range; and neither the poster nor you mentioned that range;

I would knee-jerk 1NT (indeed, 15-17) at the table because after 1C-1M I would not like rebidding either 2 or 3C..preferring 3C to be a bid less notrumpish; a 2NT rebid might be workable in your style. My decision would fare well for us on the given layout.

Your style dictates the 1C opening, and your response structure leads to a better result than my 3H final contract. "Bravo" still stands; sorry for the implications on my first post.