[mikeh]

5 controls, which is heavy for 1N, the heart 10, and the AQ combination in our shortest suit (thus, to a very minor extent, likely to be the suit led against notrump) all combine to make this a trifle too strong for my 1N openings.

Plus, sometimes this hand will play better in hearts, although, if the auction permits, I will suggest notrump even if hearts are raised.....1H 2H 2N is for me natural in some partnerships (in others, it is not).

[rmnka447]

1 ♥

The hand has a 17 count plus a very good 5 card ♥ suit and 3 1/2 QTs. So it's definitely at the very tippety top of a strong NT range, if not better.

I'm upgrading because I want to get the ♥ suit out there both for offensive and defensive reasons. If the opponents play the hand and partner is on lead, a 1 ♥ opening should help avoid a potentially costly lead in the other suits. If it's our hand, there are no rebid problems.

[lamford]

rhm, on 2019-March-19, 06:13, said:

lamford, on 2019-March-20, 13:09, said:

Partner had Qx xxxx Kxx KQxx

I admit, it would never occur to me to use Stayman on this hand. I bid 3NT and go down on a spade lead, when the king is wrong.

I would not have used Stayman either and I would have joined the two (out of 10) players who went down in 3NT. My rule, FWIW is that I bid 3NT with 4333 or 4432 with Hx as the doubleton, but bud Stayman with a low doubleton. That seems to tally with simulations opposite both 14-16 and 15-17.

[mikestar13]

I think Danny Kleinman's method is better than KR when they differ on flat hands. See http://www.bridgeguy...man_points.html

[yunling]

Something like 16.5 in my own evaluation method, so I feel comfortable to open 1NT.

5332=+0.5

Axx=4.5

KQJTx=5.25

AQ=5.75

Jxx=0.5

[msjennifer]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-March-14, 15:32, said:

It's an interesting hand, it has reasons to devalue, but as little as xxxx, xxx(x), KJ10x(x), x will give at worst a 3-3 break shot at game, and the game that will make opposite very little is in hearts.

For that reason I open 1♥.

Sir,I fully agree with you.Will the pundits of puppets stayman please explain es to how the responder will judge the hand and whether to play in NT or 4H !Will he foresee SUCH A STRONG 5 card heart suit which may decide the final contract on this hand which is a BORDERLINE hand in which only conjectures will not guide the responder to decide the contract.The bid of 1NT is also made so as to protect the DAQ tenace from immediate attack.In my personal opinion it is a toss up between 1H and 1NT.Although I shall open this hand 1H ,sometimes I may open it 1NT particularly in the 3rd seat after two passes just to make it a wee bit harder for the opponents.Some pairs do play the GAZZILLI convention on the sequence 1H/S-pass-1NT-pass auction.Just for my knowledge, may some who do play it kindly explain the further bidding and if/whether they can discover the strong heart suit.

[Y383]

lamford, on 2019-March-14, 05:48, said:

---

Dealer South, Love All, IMPs converted to VPs, London Superleague
I had an interesting discussion with the London expert Phil King yesterday as to whether to open this hand a strong NT. I thought the K-R evaluation would be below 17, but Phil offered to buy at 17.5. In his match both dealers upgraded it. What do readers think?

IMHO.. based on the risk, 1♥ is safer bid. with that hand, normally 4♥ contract should be safer than 3nt.
if u bid 1♥:
-partner with low points (0-6 pts) but have 5 cards can bid 4h.
-partner with low pts, low h support maybe passed.
-partner with normal pts (7-11) , maybe bid 2h or 1nt --> still have chance to 3nt contract.

if u bid 1nt:
-big probability u will losing the road to bid 4h, unless ur partner have 4 cards (stayman).
- 3nt contract still risky.. since nt need u to have all suit stopper.

the thought of bidding 1nt is to have ur partner to know ur points, so maybe there's chance to have 3nt contract with low points, with hope u can save 1 trick difference (10 tricks 4h vs 9 tricks 3nt). but still, the rule of life should apply: big result = minimum effort + big risk, or ..big result = normal effort + normal risk. haha.

[lamford]

hrothgar, on 2019-March-14, 06:58, said:

I'm afraid that I don't know who Alex Hydes is

He just won the Vanderbilt, which suggests that his opinion is of value. And he upgrade the hand to 18-19 and opened 1H.

[billyjef]

lamford, on 2019-April-02, 19:41, said:

He just won the Vanderbilt, which suggests that his opinion is of value. And he upgrade the hand to 18-19 and opened 1H.

I'd wait for MikeH's opinion before committing to that POV

[Cyberyeti]

lamford, on 2019-April-02, 19:41, said:

He just won the Vanderbilt, which suggests that his opinion is of value. And he upgrade the hand to 18-19 and opened 1H.

Did he upgrade it, or simply decide that it was tactically better to open 1♥ ? I'm not opening it 1♥ because it's too good, I'm opening 1♥ because I think it will get you to a better spot more often, it's more like I'm deciding it's the wrong shape rather than the wrong count.

[mcphee]

Playing 2/1 its an easy H opening intending to raise 1NT to 2 for me. The hand contains too many playing tricks for 1NT opening which is generally 5.

[lamford]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-April-03, 04:52, said:

Did he upgrade it, or simply decide that it was tactically better to open 1♥ ? I'm not opening it 1♥ because it's too good, I'm opening 1♥ because I think it will get you to a better spot more often, it's more like I'm deciding it's the wrong shape rather than the wrong count.

Phil King opened it 1H because he thought it was too good for 1NT. I don't know why Alex opened it 1H. I opened it 1NT and responded 3H to Stayman because I like to be different!

[BillPatch]

Two more reasons to eschew Stayman to search for a heart contract with responder's hand(Qx xxxx Kxx KQxx) are the relatve unattractiveness of the excess of queens, and the lack of honors in the prospective trump suit. An honorless trump suit increases the danger of a bad trump suit because you can only finesse one way or the opponent's high trumps are winners. Also, Stayman gives the defense more knowledge of opener's hand whether we play in a suit or NT, aiding the opening lead and later defense.

Personally, besides preferring NT, I also would prefer to only invite with this hand rather than raise to 3 NT. But I assume my 2NT response is used for something else, so the NT invite is only available with Stayman. I choose to raise to 3 NT directly, so I, too, get to the wromg contract and go down..

[Cascade]

One problem with 1♥ is the ♦AQ.

A significant percentage of the time the bidding will go 1♥ Pass 1NT and partner will have grabbed the no trumps and your AQ will be in the dummy. This problem is worse if you have spades rather than hearts as partner is more likely to grab the no trumps and less likely to have your AQ suit stopped.

I had a similar but different problem recently with five spades and ♣AQ but I had 19 hcp. I upgraded to 2NT, which I almost never do just to protect the the club tenace.

I would be happier upgrading to a Mexican 2♣ or 2♦ where I can still declare the no trumps than opening 1♥.

[rmnka447]

The only questionable card in this hand is the dangling ♣ J. Otherwise, you have a very strong hand with a solid 5 card suit AND 3 1/2 QTs which is greater than normal in a 15-17 hand.

So I'm bidding 1 ♥ rather than a strong 1 NT here no matter the system.