[NickRW]

WellSpyder, on Mar 3 2010, 04:11 PM, said:

gwnn, on Mar 3 2010, 08:46 AM, said:

Upgrade 1 suiters happily, 2 suiters almost never.

You might also want to be aware if you play in England that the regulations around permitted agreements may prevent you from agreeing to upgrade some of the hands that you would otherwise want to - hands either have to have a minimum of 16 HCPs or satisfy the rule of 25, ie the sum of the HCPs and the length of the two longest suits must be at least 25 (there is also the possibility of 8 clearcut tricks, but that is less likely for a marginal strong 1C opener). One suiters (and three suiters) are less likely to satsify this requirement than two suiters.

I started a thread in the forum on changing laws and regulations about this (sorry, not sure how to link to it). As a real-life example I held a few months ago, the English regulations would not allow you to agree to open a strong club with Q10x, AKQ10xx,Ax, xx.

You could always try a stong 1♦ system - since you're typically a point or two stronger to make that bid, upgrading shouldn't fall foul of the EBU's somewhat arbitrary rule

Nick

[keylime]

I look at my control count when deciding about a strong club - if on six I likely upgrade to a 1C.

With balanced hands, 14-16 NT, with the 1C-1x-1NT being 17-19.