[keylime]

You are in first position, vul colors. You are playing in an A/X Swiss with competent opponents.

Your pard and you are using 2/1 GF.

Do you open this hand, and explain why or why not:

Qx
Kx
QJxxx
KQxx

BTW, this is a hand given to me from a peer.

[hrothgar]

Very crappy hand.

I suspect that I'd open it because I have an easy 1♦ opening followed by a 2♣ rebid. I wouldn't fault a pass playing a very sound opening system.

[awm]

I'd bid. Admittedly there are a number of bad things about this hand, but you still make game opposite many 12-13 point hands. I think this is a better hand than:

Qxx
Kxx
QJxx
KQx

Of course, there are those who would routinely pass the above hand too, but I don't think passing most 12s and aceless 13s is the modern style of bridge.

[Kalvan14]

I would open 1♦, at any vul/any type of game.
Easy rebid, tolerance for majors. WTP?
Obviously if it is posted here, there must be a problem

[Kalvan14]

Jlall, on Mar 5 2006, 11:27 PM, said:

I bet if you polled all of the top 50 players in the WBF ranking they would all open this hand. I would literally be willing to make this bet if anyone is interested.

I couldn't imagine not opening this. I would open and then accept a game try in many auctions. It would never occur to me to not open this 5422 with decent honor structure, no rebid problems, excellent playability in NT, 13 count. Indeed most modern experts would open without the SQ.

Quite right. If you don't care to back all the betting, I'll be happy to take a share

[Free]

If you pass this on regular bases, you're playing a HUM!

Ofcourse I open, wtp??

[Codo]

13 HCP = opener
6 loosers = opener
no rebid problem = opener
rule of 18/20 (and even 22) fullfilled

WTP?

[pclayton]

The only 13 count I will ever pass is an aceless 4-3-3-3. OK maybe I'll pass: QJ, KQ, 6xxxx, KQxx.

QJ-5th isn't that bad a suit either.

[Gerben42]

1♦. Take away ♠Q and I'd pass.

[luis]

Any decent player will open this hand.

[joshs]

Well its not a great hand. Its aceless. The Qx is not worth close to 2 points (I think only about 1). But the QJxxx suit is a plus. In my evaluation methods, this hand is worth 12. K&R gives it 11.75. I would certainly open it.

Now change the hand to Qx Kxx QJxx KQxx and that hand I can see passing, especially if you wanted a swing since its at least a half point weaker (no 5 card suit).

[inquiry]

Not a good hand, but I open 13 hcp hands. Bite the bullet and open.

[mike777]

Jlall, on Mar 5 2006, 11:27 PM, said:

I bet if you polled all of the top 50 players in the WBF ranking they would all open this hand. I would literally be willing to make this bet if anyone is interested.

I couldn't imagine not opening this. I would open and then accept a game try in many auctions. It would never occur to me to not open this 5422 with decent honor structure, no rebid problems, excellent playability in NT, 13 count. Indeed most modern experts would open without the SQ (I would not).

I would bet that the top 50 WBF players can pass this hand and still win the board more often than not.

I would bet Justin and many of the good players who post here can pass this hand type and win.

A great value of this forum is all the knowledge we newer players can learn here to win and improve our game even when we do pass this hand type.

[mikeh]

Unless playing Roth Stone (which almost nobody other than Mike777 still plays, as far as I can tell) this is a mandatory opening bid. As to whether it is a 'good' opening bid, my suspicion is that it is only extra values to those few of us under the age of 30.

If you pass, how on earth are you ever going to catch up when partner opens 1 major?

You cannot jump in notrump with doubleton in the other major, you cannot bid a non-forcing 2 minor (and many, many pairs cannot do that anyway since both 2♣ and 2♦ are commonly used artificially) and so you are in huge trouble.

I think an equally important issue, once we have resolved to open, is our bidding plan over either 1♥ or 1♠.

Mine is to limit the hand immediately via 1N. The hands seems wrong for 2♣.

[luis]

Some people say that a crazy player fits well with a solid pd for some reason the only players that has caused me chemical problems are the very solid ones. I remember a very good player that played with me once decided not to open 1♦ with a 12 count.

His bids were
Pass (decided not to open 1♦)
1♠
XX (to show values)
X (takeout)
3♣ (a cuebid)
4♥

So instead of opening 1♦ he decided that to show his hand he had to make a redouble, a takeout double then a cuebid and then raise to 4♥

Somehow I don't like this approach

Luis

[keylime]

Mike,

Count me in with the mike777 crowd; I tend to be disciplined opener.

Here's the part 2 of the problem.

Your pard is sitting on a rock:

AKxx
Axx
Ax
Axxx.

If you open 1D, pard bids 1 spade and then over 2C rebid, bids a direct six clubs. Alas, trumps are 4-1 and diamond K offside.

The reason is not to result or such; it's very much a style matters concept. Here's the root question: with light(ish) initial action, does that indicate they want to get in there and bid, or do they not want to balance into the auction?

[awm]

Well the result here proves nothing. You reached a slam that requires only clubs 3-2, and it went down.

In general there are several reasons for opening light (and I'm not convinced opening 13-counts ever qualifies as opening light!):

(1) If partner opens in 3rd/4th, it will be difficult to convince him you have this good a hand. You have a noticable lack of forcing calls, especially when partner opens a major and you have no fit.

(2) Balancing into an auction later is fundamentally dangerous. Say you pass and LHO opens 1♥ and RHO bids 2♥. Do you pre-balance? LHO is still unlimited, you have wasted honors in the short suits, if you bid you could go for a huge number. But if you pass, you could easily miss a making three-level minor contract to defend 2♥ making. Much easier if you had opened to begin with.

(3) Opening makes it easier to jam opponents' constructive auctions. Since overcalls are much more wide-ranging than openers and most play few forcing calls after overcalls (and have a lot more discussion of "constructive" auctions than auctions after opposing openings) it's a lot harder for the opponents to bid their games accurately after our side opens. This ignores one of the biggest reasons to open -- the possibility that partner can make a preemptive raise of our suit.

Trading off against this are the two main downsides of opening light (and again, I don't really consider this 13-count a "light" opening):

(1) Bidding can place the values for opponents in the play. While this can be a problem for sure, the modern trend is to bid. Bidding clues partner in to the location of your values and lengths of suits, and can help partner on defense at least as much as it helps declarer in the play.

(2) If openings are too wide-ranging, it can become difficult to bid accurately in constructive auctions. This is becoming a serious problem for many pairs, especially those stuck on 2/1 GF as a basic approach. As openings become lighter the hands that can legitimately game force become rarer and the range of hands forced to use the 1NT response to 1M becomes wider. Two-over-one was designed as a sound opening system. However, these problems can be dealt with to a great extent by adopting a structure where openings are more limited and where there are fewer game-forcing calls.