[pescetom]

MP, nobody vulnerable.
In first seat you hold ♠Q87653 ♥Q ♦A ♣JT942.
Do you open and if so how?

Obviously, feel free to comment.

[Already polled elsewhere, but I was curious to know the thoughts of current forum posters]

[DavidKok]

I don't like passing but I think it's the right call. There are lots of clues that together create a big sign: our spades are incredibly weak, we have an outside ace (bad for preempting), we have too much shape for a first seat preempt (too much for partner to make the right call if the situation gets competitive), we're playing MP so a wrong partscore is as bad as missing a good game or slam, having spades over hearts means we can likely enter the auction later (I'll eat my words if 5♦ comes back to me), if we open 1♠ partner will hang us 100% of the time with both red suits.

My main alternative is 2♠-then-4♣ (assuming I don't get passed out or doubled), which for me shows the rare exception where opener preempts and then bids again, promising 6-5 (or longer) in a sub-opening hand. But the suits are too weak and I hate the ace of diamonds - if that was a small pip my choice would be 2♠.

[AL78]

Nice shape but the suit(s) are bleugh! I pass and I might think about a two suited overcall if the opps start bidding but even then I'd think twice with such poor suits. I prefer to open proper weak twos in first seat, there is no reason to unilaterally decide at this point the hand belongs to the opponents and if partner holds values in the red suits we want the opponents to play the hand.

[mikeh]

I used to pass these hands. Not anymore

Ask yourself this: you’re in second seat with a normal 1H or 1D opening. Would you rather hear pass or 2S on your right?

Iow, imo passing makes you an easy opponent. Bidding 2S makes you a difficult opponent

Partner should NOT hang you…a nv first seat 2S isn’t the same as a vul 2S

Also, play some form of ogust so, if partner has a good hand, he’ll learn that you have a bad suit

[pescetom]

@sfi passed in previous poll, curious to hear his thoughts?

[DavidKok]

mikeh's answer has convinced me, I was giving too much weight to the diamond ace and the form of scoring. Most of the time spades will be our best strain, so the feared partscore matchpoint zero is unlikely. I'll open 2♠.
If partner bids 2NT (for me a different feature ask than Ogust, but I'd do the same thing over Ogust) I think 4♣ is the right call - showing our entire shape beats telling partner of our suit quality. We 'never' belong in 3NT with this hand, so going past that with this hand is fine. Admittedly this is more of an IMPs agreement than a MPs agreement, but I think it's still fine.

[sfi]

pescetom, on 2023-August-27, 14:43, said:

@sfi passed in previous poll, curious to hear his thoughts?

I don't think there's much in it either way. I'm not a fan of opening 2M with 6-5 hands, preferring 1M, 3M or 4M. I didn't like the higher options because the spade suit is terrible - throw in the T9 and I'm much happier preempting. And it's just not good enough for a one-level opening.

For what it's worth, I shrugged and chose 2S in this poll. Maybe I was feeling more conservative when I answered the other day. Maybe I attached more negative weight to the singleton honours and thought I would be better placed on the next round of the auction. Or maybe I was considering a different partner and what their expectations would be. My style certainly changes depending on what makes partner happy.

[sfi]

Here's a similar hand from back in the day (early 90's).

---

You have world champions on both sides and you've perpetrated this auction. How do you feel now?

Spoiler

I presume you correct to 6♥, which turns out well when the full hand is something like:

---

The punch line is that we almost picked up a large swing when the pro at the other table opened 4♠ (!) and his partner contemplated bidding 5♥ to ask for a control with the idea of bidding 7♥ if no control and 7♦ if he had shortage. Eventually he chose 6♥ for a push though.

Not sure there is any moral, but I was North and held the strongest hand of my life against two world champions. That was fun.

[apollo1201]

6-5 come alive…but most likely at the next round for me. If I played 2M openings as M+m (usually 54, could be more), given the terrible S suit, that would be an easy call.

I used to play weak 2’s where I’d open this 2S (bad suit, side 5-cd m or 4-cd M, outside honors allowed), but not with this partner. My current one might not like this hand too much I think.

With a 6-cd H suit and sg S, there would be more urgency to steal some bidding space, and she would definitely sympathise. Especially NV where we are less cautious.

Make it AQ 6th and QJ 5th and I’ll gladly bid 1S, even with those lousy S spots.

Or on a lucky day, I’ll open because it will go 2S pass 3 or 4S and we peacefully play there, with a good MP score (+140 or +420 and thy don’t find their high level diamond save), or -50 / -100 with an easy +110 and more their way).

But on a bad day, fearing to get too high on a misfit, I will pass and opps bid 1H pass 4H just to confirm that yes, it is a bad day.

I think in the end it will be more of a partnership agreement / system.