[Hilver]

Scoring: IMP

Do You open 1♣ and how about Your arguments?

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[pbleighton]

Yes.

Peter

[Mr. Dodgy]

No and infrequent

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

i am not playing a strong club, but I would say,
that it depends on the alternatives.

If the alternative would be to open 1D, than
it certainly depends on the meaning of the 1D bid.

This is a borderline hand, and you will have to
make compromises, if 1D shows diamonds, bid it,
if it shows nothing at all, I would bid 1C showing +16HCP,
which I have.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[hrothgar]

Playing MOSCITO, I lean towards a 1♥ opening (promising 4+ Spades)

The King of Clubs isn't pulling full weight, plus I can have a nice controlled auction over most forseeable responses. The two auctions that worry me most are

1♥ - (P) - 2♠ and
1♥ - (P) - 1NT

Its possible that we might miss 3NT opposite a maximum constructive response. While we have a lot of tools available in these auctions, they aren't geared to exploring how well a stiff King fits with partner's hand.

Balanced against this, I think that a strong club opening has a greater chance of leading somewhere unpleasant. However, I consider this hand right on the cusp.

If I were to "operate" on this hand, I'd wouldn't open a strong club, but rather 1NT. (If I open 1N holding 4 Spades, it promises roughly 13 - 14 HCP, so I'll be better positioned during quantitative sequences)

[Robert]

Hi everyone

No way. I play that 1C promises 16+ and this is not a 16HCP hand.

Downgrading 'problem' minimum 1C openers into the non 1C bids appears to both improve my bidding and reduce the problem areas in my Big Club bidding.

I have changed over to the Meckwell school of 'upgrading' a good seven card suit into a 1C opening, however, I do not see any seven(six?) card suit in this hand.

I will pass that 1D-1NT bid as I play that responder bids 2m with 10HCP. The 1NT reply will be @6-9 At IMPs vul., I would invite with 2NT, however, that is only because you only need to make 38+% of your games vul. at IMPs.

Regards,
Robert

[pclayton]

If I open a strong club and can rebid 1♥, which is forcing, can be 4 and conceal a longer minor I will.

If I need to rebid 2♦ over 1♦ to start this hand, I'd just assume open it a 14-16 NT.

Please don't tell be I don't play a) OR ..........

[Echognome]

I open a strong club. If I don't partner will box my hand as at most 15. I agree it's borderline, but I'd rather slightly overbid early on than underbid.

Over 1♣ - 1♦ - I have a happy 1♠ bid the way we play it. If that were not part of my agreements, I would be rebidding 1NT.

[gwnn]

I guess I would. The worst case scenario is we bid a game with 22 outside hcp and a stiff king. Still better chances than bidding game with 22 hcp (justified or not), which we're all bound to do a few times a session @ IMP's. MP's might be a tad different, though.

[mr1303]

The problem is more if it goes something like:

1C (2H) 3C etc

when partner has a 7-8 count, we have to bid 3NT and not make it.

[flytoox]

bad diamond suit, min strength, I open this hand 1N. I'll be happy if pd xfers to any major.

[gwnn]

mr1303, on Nov 13 2006, 01:22 AM, said:

The problem is more if it goes something like:

1C (2H) 3C etc

when partner has a 7-8 count, we have to bid 3NT and not make it.

I'm not good at constructing hands but my feeling is that there are more than enough 7-8 hcp hands of p's that I would like to be in 3NT. QJT... of clubs and some pts in the pointed suits?