[lilboyman]

I have heard from various experienced match point players, that that most 12 point hands, some 11 point hands, and a few 10 point hands should always be opened even when playing 2 over 1 at match points. They claim it is always best to get you licks in ahead of the opponents since the opens your whole system of agreements for use and impedes the opponents. The problem I see with this approach is that partner may make a game forcing bid with opening values but yet the combined assets will never make game. What is the best approach to avoid this occurrence?

[mike777]

lilboyman, on 2012-March-19, 16:27, said:

I have heard from various experienced match point players, that that most 12 point hands, some 11 point hands, and a few 10 point hands should always be opened even when playing 2 over 1 at match points. They claim it is always best to get you licks in ahead of the opponents since the opens your whole system of agreements for use and impedes the opponents. The problem I see with this approach is that partner may make a game forcing bid with opening values but yet the combined assets will never make game. What is the best approach to avoid this occurrence?

fwiw I play this. 2/1=14+ not 12. that means if pard makes a 2/1 responder will very often have a bigger hand than opener.

Keep in mind pard is opening hands that the other table is passing.

I also try and throw alot of hands into a nt type opener 14+ hand types.

Since a 2/1 is 14+ this throws a lot of hands into sf nt responses over a major.

[CSGibson]

The main reasons my partner and I open light are to show a particularly good suit, or because we have compensating shape. The adjustment I have found to be most effective as responder is to game force with borderline hands with fits, but to treat borderline hands without fits as invites. The exception to this is the hand that's going to be too hard to describe as an invite (say something like x KQJxx xx AJxxx) - I'll probably just start with 2♥ over 1♠ because it makes the auction much easier to handle.

[nigel_k]

I don't think the strength of your opening bids should depend on whether you are playing 2/1 or standard. If responder chooses to force to game in 2/1 then they have a hand that would have continued to game anyway in standard.

As far as the actual strength, it is normal to open a balanced hand with 12 HCP and pass a balanced hand with 11 HCP. Some people play a style where a balanced 11 is an opening bid, but that is not standard.

With an unbalanced hand, it is normal to open many 11 HCP hands and some 10 HCP hands. If partner has a minimum game force and the hand is a complete misfit, you get too high and go down. But you gain in enough other cases to compensate for that.

[Cthulhu D]

nigel_k, on 2012-March-19, 17:59, said:

As far as the actual strength, it is normal to open a balanced hand with 12 HCP and pass a balanced hand with 11 HCP. Some people play a style where a balanced 11 is an opening bid, but that is not standard.

I've been playing 2/1 GF while opening all 11 counts (with an A or K otherwise anything goes. xxxxx AJ Kxx Kxx is a partnership opener), since I started playing bridge (like... 6 months so take this with a grain of salt). This seems to work, mostly. Our criteria for a game force is a balanced 13 count. This sometimes catapults you to a very skinny 3NT but thems the breaks. This fits in with a generally very aggressive partnership style

My overall thoughts:

If you're opening absolute trash you really want to be able to stop as low as possible. So IMHO it works much better if:

• Your NT range is 14-16 because 1X-1Y-1NT happens all the damn time and limiting that 1NT rebid is critical. If opener is limited to 13, partner can pass much more aggressively. A bad 11 count won't be worth an invite which might be to high if partner has opened a terrible 11 count.
  
• We play a semi forcing 1NT so you're not obligated to find a rebid if you've opened a real piece of cheese.
  
• You can get opener to show his hand type to responder without bypassing 1NT. We play Kaplan Inversion with transfer responses to you can go 1H-1S-1NT (balanced or clubs). Then responder is in charge of the hand and can pass this frequently.
  
• Transfer Walsh is really nice because again opener can show his hand type and safely stop in 1NT when it's right with a high degree of frequency.

Any particular suggestion is fine, just being able to stop before you overbid critical. Outcomes at the table are mixed - it's pretty swingy and combined with our hilarious overcalling style we often end up playing in some pretty anti-field contracts.