[G_R__E_G]

I said they were strange. Anyone who says that computer hands are the strange ones should have been at our club last night. These were all hand dealt. Besides this hand and the last one I showed, we also had a hand where my partner and I were both void in spades and we can make grand in hearts, diamonds or clubs!! Anyway, here it is:

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I decided to open 5♣ which as it turns out is cold (partner had the ♠K and the ♠A was on my left). I figured that slam was probably not on opposite a passed hand. Agree?

[ArtK78]

It may not be easy to find, but I disagree. You could make a grand opposite a passed hand.

Partner could have ♠A ♥KQ and out, or ♠AKQ and out, or ♠AK ♥K and out.

Clearly, he needs less to make a small slam. How about 2 aces?

You have 10 tricks in hand. Why can't partner have 2?

This hand is surprisingly similar to a hand I posted earlier today from my team match last night. My partner opened 2♣ with 9 solid spades and the singleton ♣A with 2-1 in the reds. I was not a passed hand. I had AQ sixth of hearts and AK fifth of diamonds. We were not able to work out that we had 13 tricks, but at least we got to the small slam in spades.

[jonottawa]

I agree that slam is probably not on opposite a passed hand. Not with opening 5♣, though, especially at matchpoints.

[G_R__E_G]

I should probably add the other thing that was going through my mind was that the hand really didn't have much defense. My thought was that I didn't want to give them a chance to find a fit to find a good sacrifice at the 5 level. I figured the risk of them finding a fit outweighed the chance of missing slam. If I wasn't opposite a passed hand I definitely wouldn't have done it this way and I'm not even positive that what I did was best (hence posting here ).

[ArtK78]

G_R__E_G, on 2011-June-16, 12:51, said:

I should probably add the other thing that was going through my mind was that the hand really didn't have much defense.

You have a lot of defense against a notrump contract.

[G_R__E_G]

ArtK78, on 2011-June-16, 12:57, said:

You have a lot of defense against a notrump contract.

Sure, with my luck my partner would be on lead with a club void and she'd decide to lead something pointy.

[P_Marlowe]

5C is ok, so is a 1C opening bid.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[han]

I think that 5C is a good bid. It's possible we miss a slam, but it is extremely hard to investigate slam with this hand. I don't think that there is any reasonable auction that makes me want to play 3NT, so that's not an issue either. On the other hand, it is quite likely that the opponents will be in the auction and either bid over 5C when it is right, or will be able to defend better after a competitive auction to 5C.

[Phil]

I like 5♣. Going slower assumes that we can find out exactly what we need to know vis a vis partner's majors, while giving the opponents extra room to find their game / sac.

[whereagles]

If you have methods to find the key cards after a 2♣ or other strong opening, use them. Else 5♣ seems prefectly ok.