[Chris3875]

With 6 spades, 5 hearts, 1 diamond and 1 club and about 8 HCP, a player asked me yesterday whether she could open 1C. They play Standard American where 1C would show a minimum 11 HCP and no 5 card major or 4 card diamond suit. She said she wanted her partner to respond with his best suit - they have no pre-agreement about this and she didn't actually do it - she was just wondering whether it was against the law to do it. She said she didn't want to open a weak 2 in spades because she had 5 hearts.

I don't know whether this was the best decision play-wise (opening 1C with that hand) but I couldn't think of anything in the laws that would prevent it. Any comments?

[Chris3875]

Scoring: IMP

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I managed to find the hand the Arlene was talking about - sorry, there were 5 spades and 6 hearts.

[bluejak]

The idea is completely mad, I fear, but as a one-off, it is certainly legal. It is a psyche, for a different reason from the norm, and once she has tried it, one of two things will happen.

• It will be a complete failure, getting what it deserves, and she will never try anything like this again, or
  
• it will be a success, and she will repeat it with similar hands, creating disaster after disaster, until her partner gets tired of it and tells her to play bridge.