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Lead us not into temptation
Not all black suited hands are created equal
The House normally wins when rolling the dice |
Do you open the bidding in first seat with the following first seat?
A x x x x x A J 10 x x x x
Most players
would not open this 9 High Card Point hand in first or second seat.
The hand only contains 2 "quick
tricks" and does not meet other modern criteria for an opening hand,
such as the Rule of 20 - adding HCP to
the length of the two longest suits (9 here).
From a
practical standpoint, taken by itself the hand has little value except in
the Club denomination. Should one's partner bid other suits and
eventually balance in Notrump, this hand has few entries to promote the Club
suit.
If the black
suits were reversed to:
A J 10 x x x x x
x x x A x
Aggressive
players astutely note the Spade suit could be rebid several times, advising
responder of the one-suited nature of the hand. Still others might
open 3S, bidding preemptively. Yet with an outside Ace, most
players shun the idea of preemptive 3 level opening bids (okay at the 2
level, though).
In summary,
this is not the type of hand to open 1C in first seat under
normal circumstances, playing against opponents of the same caliber; playing
against far superior opponents or looking for a "swing board" playing
Duplicate, one might consider opening the hand 3C, forcing opponents
to guess about their best game and giving your partner useful lead direction
(should your Left Hand Opponent bid 3 Notrump). But bidding this way
is gambling and could backfire - partner could have a big hand, resulting in
a missed slam. |
