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Can you ignore me?

“I” am the much abused, often ignored club suit. “I” am opened when players have three or two card suits, by some with even less. Yet, when “I” have a fine decent suit, many choose to ignore “me”. Are you one such player?

 

A nice- looking hand. So, how would you start proceedings? Your bid?

Our Panel are divided. We are told that you always open the lower of two four card but the higher of two five card suits. So, here are the supporters of opening 1:

Andy Braithwaite “ 1: in these days of competitive bidding and 5 card majors with 3+ club openings, it is vital to get the spades in first or you may have to bid them at an uncomfortable level.”

Not nearly as uncomfortable as the level you might have to bid your powerhouse club suit, if at all.

One day, Michael Ware will get his unanimous Panel but that day is not this one:

Michael Ware “1: Unanimous surely in this day and age. Anyone who opens 1 must be stuck in the stone age.
Yes, the auction could go 1-1; 1-2; 2 showing you shape nicely at a low level with the opposition conveniently passing throughout, but bridge is not played two-handed but four-handed and 1 is just so much
pre-emptive, stopping a 1 level red suit overcall. What is the percentage of uncontested auctions compared to contested? 10-90? 15-85 maximum.”

And a little more conciliatorily:

Nigel Kearney “1: I don't have a strong opinion about this. 1 is the traditional choice but I now think 1ends to work out a bit better especially playing 2/1 where a 1NT response is more likely.”

Michael Cornell “1: Tempting to open 1 but if this comes back to me at 4 ( not that unlikely ), I am not good enough to bid 4. I have 5  cold losers. Unless partner has spade support this hand is really not that good.”

So, 1 can be chosen to make it harder for the opponents to bid at a lower level, maybe to stop them overcalling at all on poor hands or in constructive auctions where we can get both suits in (although not the actual club length) by 2. Yet, textbooks do give us the option of opening 1 with 5-5 in the black suits. Let’s hear it from:

Stephen Blackstock “1: This is Bridge 101 for me, basic for a black 2-suiter unless the clubs are very poor. So, clubs first, then bid and rebid spades. I know that spades first is common now, but no-one has been able to explain to me why it is efficient to pre-empt your own constrictive auction.  Here, there is even the added advantage that I want a club lead in the unlikely event we are defending.”

I am on Stephen’s side but I would open 1when the clubs are good and worth mentioning rather than “unless the clubs are very poor.” How can you ignore AKQJ9 in what otherwise is a moderate hand point-count wise?

Kris Wooles is another to open 1 as is:

Peter Newell “1: Suit much better than spades and much easier to describe your hand economically – can get across that you are 4+/5+ at the 1 level over partner’s likely 1/ response…and can potentially bid 2 next time over 4^th suit response. If you open 1, and partner bids 2 of a red suit, you are forced to bid 3 so have consumed a lot of bidding room, and overstated your spade quality and grossly understand your club quality and length. So, 1 in my sleep even though I tend to prefer to open a 5- card major if I have one.”

The 1 openers tend to focus on competitive bidding while the 1 fans are looking at uncontested auctions. It is worth remembering that an indication to partner about the best opening lead is useful if you can…and that alone here sways me in favour of 1, even if for many, the suit is ignored on the basis that it could be a short and therefore not very strong suit.

This time, the opponents generally kept their mouths shut and the uncomfortable auction referred to by Peter Newell may have occurred:

 

West                          East

        1

2                             3

3

After which East had to decide whether or not they had a diamond hold. Even if South made an unfortunate diamond lead, the defence should get five tricks before declarer can score nine. The 2 and even 3 bids above are overbids: a 1NT response in view of West’s singleton spade would work out much better.

Meanwhile, after a 1 opening and with the knowledge of partner’s 5-5 shape, West could make the winning choice of 5, unbeatable if played by East, down only on an initial diamond lead if West got to be the declarer.

There was this time an added bonus in opening 1. At one table, South decided on a lead-directing 1 overcall, raised a level by North. East had no trouble in passing their partner’s reopening double of 2, a contract not enjoyed by the declarer.

It seems you can pick and choose your opening here. It’s nice to know that neither opening is wrong though one might work out better than the other.

Richard Solomon

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