Posted 2024-September-26, 16:13
I used to open 1S with these hands but I think it’s a 2C opening bid. When all we need for game is the club queen or the heart king, opening 1S seems too risky for me.
Having opened 1S, I must make at least some effort to show the power of the hand. While grand is remote, and may not be biddable even when cold, 6S should be reachable at least some of the time it makes. Picture xx xxx Axx AQxxxx. 13 to tricks. Ok,it’s not that I’m really catering to that, but x Kxxx Axxx Qxxx makes for an almost laydown 6S.
So I bid 3C. Even absent specific agreements, it’s pretty standard to play this as game force AND as not promising lots of clubs. It’s the standard ‘punt’ when opener wants to drive to game and has no long side suit and doesn’t want to commit to notrump or 4S. As it happens, I usually play Jeff’s Magic Elixir (the name he ascribed to the method many years ago) where 1S 1N 3C is one of:
Blacks, 5-4 or better, gf, or
Majors, 5+ spades, precisely 4 hearts, gf, or
Monster one suiter in spades, too good for namyats (if played) and too good to jump to 4S…it announces slam interest, since with no slam interest one bids 4S
Responder normally bids 3D as a relay but can show genuine spade support (4S is a hand too weak for 2S and 3S is a LR) or long hearts (3H). He can’t raise clubs because 3C could have very short clubs.
But I’d still rather have opened 2C.
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