[awm]

I think that Mike777's hand is just barely too light:

x AKQJx Tx AKJTx

Of course, you could miss a game opening 1♥, but opening 2♣ also gets you to game opposite (for example) the spade king and out, where your chances are pretty poor. In general I don't like to open 2♣ with four loser hands that are too under-strength, because while you can miss a ten trick game opening one you will also reach a lot of games where partner's one card isn't the one you're looking for. Three loser hands though are a different matter, I would open 2♣ with:

x AKQJx Tx AKQTx

This hand has a decent chance at game opposite most zero counts with a few hearts. Obviously there are bad examples where partner is short in both round suits where game is bad, but I think 4♥ will make more often than not.

[inquiry]

It has been suggested that strong two suiters both in the majors are better to open 2♣ than strong two suiters with both minors, and maybe with one major and one minor

A) held exactly 20 hcp
had at least 5 cards in both majors

For the month of October, these are the 9 hands were dealer matched these requirements. Of these hands, shown below, they were opened 1C once, 1H 4 times, 2C 10 times, 1S 26 times, 3S once, and 4H once (most were in team games). Here are the hands.

Rate the ones you would be happy to open 2♣ and the ones you would be happier to open 1♠ (or 1♥). I have placed them roughly in the order of strongest to weakest, but I didn't labor over doing so.

Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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[awm]

I would open 2♣ on hands 1-4, 6, and 9.

Hand 5 is not "really" a 20-count with so much value wasted in stiff queen and Jx. Hands 7 and 8 have the same issue to a lesser degree, plus the suit quality is not so hot (keeping in mind that opening 2♣ may lead to playing 4M in a 5-2 in my better-quality suit, partner having one useful card). These hands also tend to have more losers than the others (4 instead of 3).

[HeartA]

awm, on Nov 10 2006, 03:10 PM, said:

I would open 2♣ on hands 1-4, 6, and 9.

I am a little more conservative than you. I don't open 2C on #9.

[mikeh]

I open 2♣ on hands 2 and 3. The others are 1♠ bids for me, altho no. 1 is very, very close and on another day I might well bid 2♣. I like GOOD suits to open 2♣ on, if unbalanced.

[inquiry]

Four voters so far. Vote total for 2♣so far:
1 - IIII----------------------------------80%
2 - IIIII--------------------------------100%
3 - IIIII--------------------------------100%
4 - III-----------------------------------60%
5 - no love
6 - III-----------------------------------60%
7 - I-------------------------------------20%
8 - no love
9 - I -----------------------------------20%


(the above includes my votes. I open 1, 2, 3 2♣, all others 1M)

[inquiry]

Ok.. i think i can entice some 2♣ openings on one or two of these 15 point hands... if not, we begin to have a solid definition of what hands are "good enough" for 2C with major two suits (tricks? losers? controls? suit quality?)...Again these are bbo hands from october 2006.
HAND A vvvv
♠AKQJ953  ♥KQ9432   ♦void  ♣void
HAND B vvvv
♠AKQ106/♥AQ10875/♦83/♣Void
HAND C vvvv
♠KQ862/♥KQJ1062/♦Void/♣A3
HAND D vvvv
♠AKQ863/♦KQJ92/♦5/♣10
HAND E vvvv
♠AQ9874/♥AKQ53/♦2/♣5
HAND F vvvv
♠AKQJ104/♥AJ1085/♦2/♣9
HAND G vvvv
♠AKQJ8/♥AJ1097/♦2/♣86

i will start. Only hand A will I open 2C.

[HeartA]

To open 2C with those hands, I have to have agreement with my partner that 2C opener may not guarantee defensive power. When I put pd's dbl to my another major (hopefully I have the chance to bid2 majors), he has to be aware that my hand is offensive only.

Under this agreement, hand D is OK, too. As long as pd has a few cards in majors, a game has good chance.

Anyway, it is not my current style to open 2C on these hands.

[awm]

I wouldn't open 2♣ on any of those hands. I think on hand one I would open 1♠ and rebid 6♥ though.

While the playing strength is there on some of them, there are a lot of other issues such as partner playing me for defense if the opponents intervene, the awkwardness of showing both suits if hearts are longer, and partner pushing towards slam with some 13-count that includes no useful cards (yes such hands exist when I have void in one suit and stiff in another).

[Winstonm]

The answer I give on these problems is systemic so take it for what it is worth.

The 2C structure I developed for me and partner uses 2D as an almost universal querry to the 2C opening; after which game-forcing two suiters can be shown this way:

3C=club/heart
3D=diamond/heart
3H=majors
3S=spades/diamonds
4C=diamonds/spades
4D=5/5 minors or 6/6 minors
4H=5/6+ minors
4S=6+/5 minors

Cheapest preference/raise shows the weakest hands. In-between step is lower/lower and higher/higher with some degree of slam interest.

[Winstonm]

inquiry, on Nov 10 2006, 02:13 PM, said:

It has been suggested that strong two suiters both in the majors are better to open 2♣ than strong two suiters with both minors, and maybe with one major and one minor

A) held exactly 20 hcp
had at least 5 cards in both majors

For the month of October, these are the 9 hands were dealer matched these requirements. Of these hands, shown below, they were opened 1C once, 1H 4 times, 2C 10 times, 1S 26 times, 3S once, and 4H once (most were in team games). Here are the hands.

Rate the ones you would be happy to open 2♣ and the ones you would be happier to open 1♠ (or 1♥). I have placed them roughly in the order of strongest to weakest, but I didn't labor over doing so.

Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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Scoring: H/S 1

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