[the hog]

All vul Butler scoring

You pick up this in first seat -

void
QJT92
9
KQJT864

Your methods are as follows:
A 2H opening would show some Major minor 2 suiter with unanchored suits, about 5-10. Your partnership agreement is that with a freak like this you are allowed to open and bid again.

Do you open 2H?
If "yes", then this is what you will hear

2H (4S) P (6S)
Now what?

If "no", you will see this auction
P (1S) P (2N) Jacoby. Your move?

Whatever the opps will get to 6S. What, if anything, will you do?

[luke warm]

4♥ and then 7♣... or pass all the way

[Free]

Bidding 2♥ on such hand clearly means you have no idea what preempting is used for imo. You have only 4 losers!! Easy 1♣ (or 1♥ perhaps) opening, or some strong opening...

[the hog]

Ok I should have been more explicit. You can't open 1C as this denies a 5 card Major, unless you have 19+hcp.

Opening with a strong bid is really poor . eg players who open this with a strong C, for example, and I know some who would, totally mislead their partners in terms of high card strength.

This is a strong hand in PLAYING STRENGTH, not in high cards.

[Antoine Fourrière]

5♣ and then pass, any vul, any scoring, any state of the match.
Your partner doesn't know much, but no one else knows nearly as much.

[paulhar]

This seems like the perfect hand to try to get doubled! Unfortunately, this strategy probably won't work this hand - it tends to work much better when the strength is more evenly divided and one of the opponents is annoyed enough that I dare try to outbid the master suit that I get doubled.

In any event, I pass, and over 1S P 2NT, I'll bid 5C and hope it's enough to cause them grief, but it appears from the original post that this time I lose. If they bid 6S now, I'm going to hope that the bad breaks are enough to set them.

I can't see a strong opening - the opponents are bound to play some high contract doubled - and if you pull, it might be the time your partner has five good trump. Of course, if your partner has the good hand (say some 18 count with spades and/or diamonds), they're thinking there's about 19 top tricks when any slam has no play.

[mikestar]

I like 5C, but with a patnership agreement that it is a freak preempt rather than a 12 trick hand, I would open 6C--I have 9 fairly sure tricks and they are quite sure to have a slam--not unlikely a grand.

[whereagles]

I'd open 5C. I can play clubs opposite a void, and whatever pard has in hearts, it will fill my side suit. You can even do a lightner double if they bid 6/7 diams.

[Trpltrbl]

You have 2 concerns with this hand, missing many ♠ and trying to tell pd as corrctly as you can what you have.
You can open this either 1♣ or 5♣. Passing is not an option since it gives opps all the room they need. And for that much so does opening 1♣.
So I open 5♣, just because I have no defensive values.
Pd should be able to make a good decision.

Mike

[Trpltrbl]

luke warm, on Aug 10 2004, 06:55 PM, said:

4♥ and then 7♣... or pass all the way

AYAY, how is pd ever going to find out you have 7♣'s ?
You are bidding to prevent opps from getting somewhere, so you might as well use your 7 card suit and not your 5 card suit, would kinda stink to run out of trump.

Mike

[luke warm]

Trpltrbl, on Aug 11 2004, 04:56 PM, said:

luke warm, on Aug 10 2004, 06:55 PM, said:

4♥ and then 7♣... or pass all the way

AYAY, how is pd ever going to find out you have 7♣'s ?
You are bidding to prevent opps from getting somewhere, so you might as well use your 7 card suit and not your 5 card suit, would kinda stink to run out of trump.

Mike

well that's true, but i'm not thinking they'll pass 4H... and if they DO bid 6S, the 7C bid gives partner an option.. course you might be right, with 2/3 in my suits he'd probably go back to hearts... bummer

[Fluffy]

2♥ opening, pass later, you don´t have the rights to defend to a slam bid in 2 rounds.