[kgr]

(hand coming from other threat)
1st seat, you open:

98
AQ6
AKQT5
AT6

98
AQ6
AKJT5
AJT

98
AQJ
AKT65
AJT

98
AJ6
AKQJT
AT6

Which of the above hands do you prefer? Or this really all the same in 1st seat?
I'm wondering if AKQ diamonds in 1st hand is not overdone and more useful in another suit. (I added last hand with ♦AKQJT. There ♦J seems even less useful?)

BTW: just read hand evaluation by Mike Lawrence. Interesting book! If I remember well then it says somewhere that supporting honours are good, but not too much; ie as long as they are useful.

[awm]

I'd rate the first two as about equal, the next two as a bit worse.

(1) In the first two hands, every honor is supported by another honor. The diamonds are, while not solid, a very strong suit that could easily play for five tricks opposite two or three small.

(2) In the third hand, the diamonds are substantially weakened. This suit will not play for five tricks opposite small cards, and may not play for four tricks opposite a doubleton.

(3) In the fourth hand, the diamond ten is not really a useful card. AJx is not a particularly strong heart holding (the jack doesn't pull extra weight because of the presence of the ace really). If we move the ♦T to be the ♥T then this will be closer to the strength of the first two.

[EricK]

Why ask us when Thomas Andrews' interactive evaluator will tell you the answers?

http://bridge.thomas.../bin/ddeval.cgi

Based on Binky points, Hand 2 is very, very marginally better than hand 3 which is a bit better than hand 1 which is quite a bit better than hand 4

[pclayton]

I would have rated them A, C, B, D.

Clearly AKQJT and the wispy fragments is the worse.

AKTxx and the strong fragments seem stronger than AKJTx and the weaker fragments. Apparently A is in the middle per Binky.

K and R (debate K and R vs Binky somewhere else) rates them as 21.25, 21.2, 21.25, 20.7 respectively; pretty close to mine.

[EricK]

I think that AJT is better than AT6 by more than AKQT6 is better than AKJT6 which is why Binky points may be right when they put B ahead of A.

C is harder to judge. The J certainly looks better in the long suit, but perhaps looks are deceiving here. The J is always going to help AQ but the length in the suit may compensate for the lack of J in AKxxx.

[kenrexford]

It depends. If I open 2NT on each of them, my interest in each hand depends upon whether partner transfers to hearts, transfers to spades, or bids 4NT. If partner bids 3NT or Puppet, I like all of them roughly alike.