Diamonds are a Bridge Player’s best friend

Source: gerbenbridge.blogspot.com.ar

If you ask me what is the most neglected suit in bridge my answer is Diamonds. In standard American / French style opening 1 shows at least 3 cards. The idea around this is that 1 is a 4-card suit most of the time and that responder will just assume that this is the case, ignoring the hand with 4432. That’s usually not going to make a difference, but sometimes…

Partner opens 1 and RHO overcalls 2. If you have a distribution like 3244 or so, there are two possibilities:
1. Partner has 4. You have a fit. They probably have a fit. We want to compete.
2. Partner has the dreaded 4432 hand. Yes, with 4 Hearts. They don’t have a fit. Partner doesn’t have real Diamonds, so we don’t have a fit. Great. Although the chance of this is low, the problems created by getting it wrong are large.

My tip: Open 4432 with 1. You need to alert your opponents to this possibility when you open 1. Now that 1 shows more information than 1, it has become a good idea to open hands with 4-4 in the minors with 1. Heck, even hands with 4 and 5 that are too weak to bid a reverse can be opened with 1. The corollary is that you now have some extra information when partner opens 1: Probably he won’t have 4 or more !

Using this opening style has some consequences for the rest of the auction. If we open 1 we usually don’t have 4. Responder with 4 then does not need to bid them, so hands with 4 and 4/ will respond in the major. Especially when the response is 1 this will have helped us shut out the suit. Some pairs go further and bid the major before even when the are longer. This style is called Walsh.

Now to the opening bid of 1. As this now shows at least 4 cards in many situations it is good to want to play this suit and tell partner about it.
I use this raise structure:
3: Pre-emptive with long , about 3 – 6 HCP
3: Constructive raise with fit, about 7 – 9 HCP
2: Inverted, invitational or better with
Perhaps you need to adjust these ranges if you have an agressive opening style.

Another thing is that you may have a hand with both minors. The auction 1 – something – 2 no longer shows longer than . It could also be 4 + 5. Be sure to have discussed this with partner so he won’t give incorrect preference with 3 and 2.