David Stevenson
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Legally an artificial strong 2C must either have 16 HCPs, or 12 HCPs and 5 controls, where ace is 2 controls and king is 1 control. If you play it so that it does not require 16 HCPs then you must indicate so in your description. Just saying strong or Benjamin is not an adequate description.
Personally, while I do not usually give advice in this forum, I would always have 16 HCPs or more.
I do disagree with Reg. There are easy solutions except in one very very rare case and I do not understand about telling lies. When my partner and I bid 1C – 1D – 1H I have shown an opening hand with four clubs and four hearts. That is so whether I am 4=4=1=4 or 2=4=3=4 or or 1=4=3=5 or 1=5=1=6.
The advantage of always opening a minor is that there is no lie with 1=4=4=4 when 1H – 1S – 2C shows five hearts.
Furthermore when you learn something – for example what to respond to 1H with four spades and longer clubs and fewer points than 11 – the frequency of it happening is incredibly small. You might go six months without seeing such a hand. But if you learn a complete system, whether Bernard’s Acol, or something else, you will learn bits of it that are very rare in themselves but it is the way they fit in to the whole system. How often do you ask for kings for a grand slam? Also each pair that gets some experience tends to make some adjustments so they do not play the same as each other.
If you call it a lie – I don’t like the term, since it is just a bit of the system that is different from other bits – then if you open a minor the only real unfortunate is that 1D – 2C – 2D does not show extra length. But the frequency of that happening is very low.One of the recurring problems in modern bridge is that people misuse names. This thread is about Key Card Blackwood not Roman Key Card Blackwood. But be warned, a large number of players play Roman Key Card Blackwood but call it Key Card Blackwood. If it matters, check!
No, just not quite right in detail. With 5/5 you open the higher ranking suit. With 4/4 it is more complicated because of the rebid problem. With simple modern Acol it is simplified by playing a 12-14 1N which takes some of the complications away. But you still have to decide what to do with 4441s – I would always open 1D, or 1C with a singleton diamond. If you open 1S with four spades and four diamonds it is assumed you will not show the diamonds, but bid NT next.
If ever you move on to some more advanced methods you may move away from playing the weak NT and if so you will find that if you have a weak NT it is easiest to always open a minor.As I mentioned earlier the idea that opening a major and rebidding a minor shows five cards in the major has been part of Acol since the 80s or thereabouts. This is nothing to do with five card majors where a major shows five cards the moment you open it.
Of course it is legal to make an illegal bid as a psyche. If you open 1S on
32
843
J943
Q543
that is a psyche and as such is perfectly legal.
But I am not convinced by the director’s argument in the example are you gave. I would ask him why he opened, whether he was going to rebid and whether this was the normal way to bid this hand. I might easily ask his partner what he would open on the hand. It would depend somewhat on the replies but my guess is this was not a psych, it was meant as an ordinary opening bid, so unless they got less than average minus on the board I would cancel it and give them average minus and their opponents average plus.
The maths behind this sort of decision is incalculable owing to lack of statistics and also fairly irrelevant. Which suit you open may be wrong on any particular hand and is really a matter of what seems likely. For example I think 1H on 1=4=4=4 dreadful since one of the big steps forward in Acol in the 80s or thereabouts was when the advantage of bidding a major then a minor to guarantee five cards in the major was realised, but quantifying it is difficult. There other considerations as well, for example if I had 12 or 13 points in 3rd seat (I play 1N in that position as 14-17) and was (3/2)=4=4 I would open my stronger minor since in 3rd I think suit quality is more important since partner will finish on lead a fair proportion of the time.
My comments was really aimed at Stewart who seemed to think that consistency was important. For the reasons I explained I think 1D is more important on 4441s than on 4432s and my partner and I do not actually insist what we open with the latter.
When I moved to the Liverpool area 50 odd years ago I discovered that it was normal there to open 1D on 4=4=4=1 hands, and also 4=4=3=2 with 13/14 points when playing a 10-12 1N opening. It was agreed that 1D – 2C – 2D showed no extra length in diamonds, so could be 3 or 4 cards. I found this worked very well, solved these tricky hands, and I still play it. Of course we alert the 2D rebid.
I do not understand why it matters if an approach is inconsistent. If you agree to open 1D on 4=1=4=4 hands and 1C on (3/2)=4=4 hands why does it matter?
Personally I open 1D on both because there are some very rare advantages. If you open 1D and rebid clubs this should not guarantee five diamonds, unlike opening a major and rebidding a lower ranking suit. So when you open a 3=2=4=4 hand with 15 points with 1C you are intending to rebid 1N. But what happens if LHO overcalls 1S, partner doubles, and you have no spade stop? To use the vernacular, you are stuffed. I would have opened 1D and now rebid 2C.
Another reason for opening 1D, probably more important with the 4441 hand, is that if you open 1C and partner responds 1D you do not know whether to rebid 1S or 2D. By opening 1D you avoid this problem. If partner responds 2C you can raise happily knowing the partner either does not have spades or is strong enough to go on over 3C.Stayman is an announcement not an alert, so there is no need to alert Stayman.
Ever since Stayman was invented by Jack Marx in England and George Rapee in the USA at about the same time the minimum point count for using Stayman has been zero points. Unfortunately many players are taught to use Stayman on game try hands or better but this is a continuing problem which we have seen in this forum and its predecessor in Mr Bridge’s magazine many times. Many players expect other players to play the same way as they do. One of the most important things that bridge teachers ought to teach but I am afraid many do not is that what you get taught is not the way others play it.
Not only are your opponents wrong in thinking that Stayman on low points is unusual but they are also wrong that all unusual bids get alerted. Alerting is laid down by the EBU (in England and Wales) and putting it very simply, certain bids are announceable, conventional calls otherwise are alertable, very very strange unusual natural bids are alertable and any double that is not for takeout is alertable. So alerting Stayman is incorrect.The opponents have a right to know your agreements, not what is in your hand. So in the example above the redouble should be described as 9+ and no heart fit.
