[jillybean]

This is a hand from a game in NZ

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It's not going to fit into any bidding system but what do you open?
1♠
4♠
4nt , do you play specific ACES? (corrected)
2♣ (allowed in NZ if alerted)

I'm going to add 4nt specific Aces to my card, what else could it be?

[P_Marlowe]

Vul? MP or IMP?

Most of the time I would bid 4S, and see what develops.
See the 3NT Gambling Alternatives (3NT as strong Preempt) as an valid option.

[mw64ahw]

4♦ Namyats looks fine

[mikeh]

Way too strong for namyats. Partner will almost never move and, if he does, we won’t know whether to bid 7.

Even if 2C was permitted, I’ve stated my semi tongue in cheek rule before. This is an extreme example. When you have no assurance of beating a slam bid by the opponents, you don’t have a 2C opening (I’m not counting complete freaks,,.such as a so,id 12 card suit). Here, you don’t rate to beat a grand! If they have the strength to bid it.

More seriously, opening 2C on this king of hand gets partner far too excited in terms of doubling the opps.


Me? This is potentially a good hand to take a dog for a walk. Is 1S getting passed out? No. If partner can’t bid, the opps have 25 hcp+ and at least one is short in spades.

If that’s too tame, and you have a tolerant partner, consider a pass…but do it in tempo, which may be impossible.

[Cyberyeti]

mikeh, on 2026-June-06, 14:07, said:

If that’s too tame, and you have a tolerant partner, consider a pass…but do it in tempo, which may be impossible.

I passed void, Ax, x, 10 solid in tempo

4♠-P-P- I bid 6♣, made (partner had ♥K) lost 5 IMPs, it was doubled at the other table.

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2026-June-06, 11:51, said:

This is a hand from a game in NZ

---

It's not going to fit into any bidding system but what do you open?
1♠
4♠
4nt , do you play specific Kings?
2♣ (allowed in NZ if alerted)

For most of Italy this is a no-brainer 2♣-2♦;3♠: one would have a hard time convincing them that they should have 12 HCP more that this or that they should be able to defeat any possible slam.
It's too strong for Namyats or similar and even the Gazzilli pairs would gulp at opening 1♠ here.
I'm happy to have my own version of 4NT specific Aces/Kings on the card, although I don't think I need it here.
With different partners I would be tempted to pass.

[mike777]

I don't think the opponents will remain silent, will open 1S, granted only ten HCP

[jillybean]

P_Marlowe, on 2026-June-06, 12:02, said:

Vul? MP or IMP?

They didn't say. If it matters, we can have multiple options

[mw64ahw]

mw64ahw, on 2026-June-06, 13:35, said:

4♦ Namyats looks fine

Rather than being too strong I thought the hand was too HCP light for 4♦. However, with 4 mod. losers/10 playing tricks as a counterweight I want to make the slam try and can't think of a cleaner way to do it.

[Huibertus]

jillybean, on 2026-June-06, 11:51, said:

This is a hand from a game in NZ

---

It's not going to fit into any bidding system but what do you open?
1♠
4♠
4nt , do you play specific ACES? (corrected)
2♣ (allowed in NZ if alerted)

I'm going to add 4nt specific Aces to my card, what else could it be?

I'm passing, it's not getting passed out. Going to incite a double if they bid, taking out everything. And who knows, partner might hold the strength and inform us much of it is in ♣.


About a decade ago I used to play two under preempts combined with strong distributional 1 or 2 suiters with 4 or less losers.

That would have allowed to tell partner you hold a ♠ 1 suiter with three losers, 2 in ♣ and 1 in ♥. That system was a tremendous burden on memory, leading to occasional mistakes where the benefits (which obviously were there) were very infrequent as these hand types are infrequent even more so when you are allowed to inform partner in uncontested auctions. We decided to stop with it.