[Salokin]

You play a basically natural system (15-17, 5♠♥ 4♦)
and hold as south:

Scoring: IMP

---

it went :

(pass) 1♦ (pass) ?

do you respond 1♠?

How much more/less do you need:

- HCP

- ♠ length

- ♠ quality

- ♦ length

Thanks for answering

Salokin

[inquiry]

I bid 1♠

I don't need any more. If I had Kxxx of spades I might not bid.

[hotShot]

The answer to your question depends an the strength that opener is likely to hold.
How strong would e.g.
1♦ - 1♠
2NT
be?
Would you open any shape of 21HCP hand with 2♣?
What other strong openings are in your system?
Usually opener will have (11)12-20 HCP, most likely a balanced hand with 12-14 HCP.
More than 95% of the time, there is only a partscore for your side, mostly you are in a minoraty HCP position.
With an established 7 card fit and the minoraty of points, there is no reason to bid.

If within a system (e.g. by playing 12-14 NT), bidding a minor will often show a strong and/or imbalanced hand, you should bid, because you might at least have half of the HCP, and you should be able to play at least 2♠ (even with 7 cards), to get a good result.

At last there are tactical reasons. Your LHO's hand is probably the strongest one in this deal, and if one of your opps is unbalanced, they might be close to game.
So if your partner usually opens light, you should bid 1♠ to make life harder for opps, otherwise pass.

[joker_gib]

inquiry, on Apr 6 2006, 01:41 PM, said:

I bid 1♠

I don't need any more. If I had Kxxx of spades I might not bid.

I agree : the ace makes the difference !

Alain

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I would bid as well.

With a pick up partner I would most likely pass,
but in my regular partnership, I would def. bid.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[awm]

I'll pass on this hand. The 4333 shape dissuades me from bidding. It's true that we could have a game, and that partner could have 21 or 22 high. But considering the various possibilities:

(1) Partner could still have some 13-14 balanced if opponents high cards are evenly split. In this case we're not making much of anything, but 1♦ rates to be safer than 1NT.

(2) Partner could have 18-19 balanced or the like. In this case my bidding will end us in 2NT (or some large number of spades) and I don't expect to make. If I pass we will play 1♦, or maybe 1NT (or defend) if opponents balance. In fact passing and hammering the opponents' balancing call may be our best way to a big score on this board.

(3) Partner could have some hand with a bunch of diamonds. This could even be a pretty big hand, even one where we make game. But I have three diamonds also. If we have 8-9 diamonds between us opponents almost invariably balance. So I'll pass figuring to make a call later if partner wakes up.

[mike777]

ok since this is not the newer player section, easy 1S for me.

If I was void in D and had zero hcp and a 5 card major I would bid it.
With zero hcp and 4333, easy pass.

edit: I should add partner has denied balanced 14-16 or 18-19 for me and some semi-balanced hands in the same range.

[pclayton]

Strictly a matter of style.

If you choose to open a 1 bid on a 22-23 count with a difficult pattern; KQxx, A, AKQxx, Axx then its correct to respond on hands holding an ace and out.

[Joe de Balliol]

Holding a four card major headed by the ace I'm always responding if I can bid it at the 1 level.

J

[cherdano]

Welcome on the forum, Niko!

Recently there was a similar hand on vuegraph, approximately Q9xx QT9x xxx xx. Eric Kokish responded 1H over 1D, and Bart Bramley as commentator explained that Kokish is a big advocate of light responses (and he was in agreement). I won't argue with Kokish.
To me, it feels better to bid with Kokish's hand than the hand given here, however. Probably because the hand is much more offensive in case one of the majors will be trumps, and there is a bigger chance of catching a fit.

Personally, I like to respond even lighter with some shape, i.e. QT9-5th332 would be enough for me.

Arend

[Free]

1♠. Opponents are quiet, we might have game and I have a whole trick!