jillybean, on Feb 28 2010, 03:41 PM, said:
hanp, on Feb 28 2010, 01:38 PM, said:
How about just opening your best suit? The fact that it is clubs and you have a huge hand makes this a no-brainer imo.
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♠ swish, what have I gained?
Kathryn I think it is instructive in general when someone at Han's level gives you advice to think about what he says and why it might be better to open 1C instead of 1D on this hand (and why it has some potential downside). He didn't spell it out but there are many benefits to opening 1C with very strong (41)44 hands.
Ok, I will spell it out. You still get to clubs if partner has clubs (which you won't over a 1D opener), 1C-1D is now a very good auction for you, and if for some reason the opponents end up declaring some number of hearts doubled you certainly want a club lead, not a diamond lead.
On the downside if an auction gets competitive (they bid hearts) and you double, partner will often be endplayed into hoping you have 5 clubs (after all, you opened 1C). There are even auctions where he would be scared to mention his 5 card diamond suit and instead would take a preference to his three card club suit. This is especially true if in competitive auctions you don't play 2N is some kind of scramble for the best strain. Also it is a general theme that opening a type of hand (4-4 minors in this case) with two different bids depending on your judgment is not good, because it makes both of those auctions harder.
In general it is good advice to any aspiring bridge player to not only follow expert advice (like open 1D with 4-4 minors in general) but think about that advice (like whether or not you should open 1D with 4-4 minors on this particular hand). You will find your game progresses much faster this way.
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