Here we consider an assortment of opening bid decisions. Open or preempt? 1NT or one of a suit? Which suit to open?
N-S Vul
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West North East South Pass Pass Pass ?? |
What do you think of a 1NT opening bid here? Sure, it’s a tad off-shape, but the alternative is to open 1
and risk a serious rebid problem if Partner responds 1
. Now you won’t be happy (or least you shouldn’t be) with any of these options: (a) reversing into 2
(the hand is not good enough), (b) a rebid of 2 (the hand is too good), (c) a rebid of 3 (the hand does not have enough Clubs). So, a 1NT opening it is.
Now, swap the Hearts and Spades, giving West 4=2=2=5 distribution. Is that still a 1NT opener? It could be, opening 1NT does sometimes have a tactical benefit. On the other hand, there is no potential rebid problem with this shape, and therefore no objection to opening 1.
Both Vul
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West North East South 1 ??
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What would be your choice of rebid? Do you raise Spades or do you rebid 1NT? That’s a rather strong hand for a 1NT rebid, don’t you think? There’s a full 14 HCP, plus a 5-card suit (albeit a ratty one), plus a couple of Tens, plus a couple of Aces. So, we’d raise to 2, that 3-card support is strong and there is a potential ruffing value in Diamonds. But the real solution to West’s hand, in our opinion, is to open 1NT, showing 15-17, thereby solving all rebid issues.
N-S Vul
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North East South West ??
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On Board 4 we had two 9-point hands which happened to pass the Rule of 20 and which also happened to look like opening bids (at least to us). Here we have an 11-point hand which also passes the Rule of 20 but, perversely, this one does not look like an opening bid! Here is why:
– That doubleton KQ is not pulling it’s full weight
– There are no hidden extras, such as some useful Tens or shortness somewhere
– If we open 1, what do we rebid when Partner bids 1?
– We could open 1
, planning to rebid 2, but that is not particularly appealing on such a featureless and yucky hand.
Both Vul
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West North East South ??
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