[haver]

Playing at BBO as an expert with unknown advanced partner nonvuln. against vuln. your hand is:

♠ 10, 7
♥ 10,9,8,7,4
♦ A,K,10,9,7,6
♣ -

You are the dealer, so what is your opening bid?

[the hog]

2H - weak 2 in S or H & minor, 5/5

[luis]

1♦, easy problem.

[inquiry]

As long as not playing in ACBL even, 1♦. ACBL will not allow an opening bid at the one level with only 7hcp (1 ♦ is the correct opening bid). So under conditions you state, on BBO, 1♦ (obviously ACBL tourney excluded).

Ben

[hrothgar]

haver, on Jul 14 2004, 05:33 PM, said:

Playing at BBO as an expert with unknown advanced partner nonvuln. against vuln. your hand is:

♠ 10, 7
♥ 10,9,8,7,4
♦ A,K,10,9,7,6
♣ -

You are the dealer, so what is your opening bid?

If I'm playing with a pickup partner, I'm going to be forced to pass.
I like systems that allow me to open this hand, but I doubt that I am playing one.

If I am playing SAYC, I might consider 1♦

[Free]

1♥, 6 losers, minimum hand, 5 card ♥. Keep rebidding ♦'s unless you find a 6-2 ♠ fit...

[whereagles]

Hard to describe the hand... maybe pass will work better, waiting for more information.

[pclayton]

Its funny, before I read about Zar, I wouldn't have dreamed of opening this. Now its a 1♦ opening, then 2 ♦ over anything low but 1♥, then 3♥ next.

Pass could work OK, but in modern times you may be at the 5 level on your next opportunity .

[luis]

pclayton, on Jul 14 2004, 06:26 PM, said:

Its funny, before I read about Zar, I wouldn't have dreamed of opening this. Now its a 1♦ opening, then 2 ♦ over anything low but 1♥, then 3♥ next.

Pass could work OK, but in modern times you may be at the 5 level on your next opportunity .

I ignore Zar and open 1♦. I have my symphaties for novel evaluation methods by still believe that common sense and bridge knowledge are above all of them.
Let's try to NOT assign to Zar logical bids.

[whereagles]

pclayton, on Jul 14 2004, 07:26 PM, said:

Pass could work OK, but in modern times you may be at the 5 level on your next opportunity .

Hey I wouldn't mind butting-in at the 5-level

[Cascade]

inquiry, on Jul 14 2004, 11:41 AM, said:

As long as not playing in ACBL even, 1♦. ACBL will not allow an opening bid at the one level with only 7hcp (1 ♦ is the correct opening bid). So under conditions you state, on BBO, 1♦ (obviously ACBL tourney excluded).

This is a strange rule.

I assume they allow openings with 8 hcp. So adding the ♠J would make it okay or a stiff Jack in a 1561 hand.

From Law 40D
"Zonal organisations may, in addition, regulate partnership understandings (even if not conventional) that permit the partnership’s initial actions at the one level to be made with a hand of a King or more below average strength."

Only if you only count hcp is this 7hcp hand a King or more below average strength.

How does it go with Zar points compared with an average hand?

[Cascade]

I open 2♥ showing five hearts and at least a four-card minor around 5-10 hcp. I rebid 3♦ if I can freely if necessary. Over a 2NT I will jump to 4♦ showing 56.

[whereagles]

If you want to open this, why not 3♦?? It's safe, descriptive, lead-directing and shuts out the black suits much more effectively than a 1-level opening or a two-suited 2♥.

You put your eggs all in one basket, but hey, that's the point of pressure-bidding. Besides, who cares about hearts? Wouldn't you open 3♦ if it were a 2461?? And you can still double a 6♠ contract for a club lead

[luke warm]

i'm not crazy about 3D... true, the heart suit could be better but there are 5 of them... i have a lot of respect for the opinions of the ones who opened 1D, but i'd open 1H here (assuming i'm allowed to open)

[Fluffy]

my common sense tells me I have a 2-4-6-0 hand with limit strenght (about 10-11 if balanced), so I would pass.

[haver]

Let me add some statistics: at BBO indy out of 16 tables at 14 the dealer passed this hand at 3 opened 2 ♦ and at 1 table 1 ♥
My expert partner opened 2 ♦ which by my standard and all probab. usualy shows a hand about 5-6 ♦ and due to nonv. against vul. as few as 5-9 points with no voids and no 4 (or 5) card majors. This bid i d pass with a lots of hands making easy game opposite my partner's real hand, and in fact i bid 3NT with a very strong hand being sure that any other bid will be passed by my partner as we have no prior agreement on this.
What i dont understand: why not pass? There sure will be some bidding as the others have 33 points + 24 black cards and i will be much better placed next round after my initial pass to show this freakish hand.

[Cascade]

haver, on Jul 15 2004, 03:00 AM, said:

What i dont understand: why not pass? There sure will be some bidding as the others have 33 points + 24 black cards and i will be much better placed next round after my initial pass to show this freakish hand.

There being 33 points and 24 black cards out by no means makes it certain that we will be better placed to show our hand next time.

The fundamental problems of bidding are to find our fit (or denomination) and to find the level that we wish to bid to. At times these objectives are conflicting. To find our best fit we need to bid our suits as often as possible. To find the correct level our bids need to be as narrowly defined as possible. There is an obvious conflict between bidding our suits freely (to find our fit) and keeping our range (using whatever valuation method) as narrow as possible (to accurately determine our level).

Passing first with this hand will often make it harder to find our fit while bidding first might make it harder to find our correct level.