General rule for 4441 hands, Red singleton, open the suit below the singleton, Black singleton, open the middle suit.

What do you teach them to open with 4-4 in the majors?

Regarding all your comments about major-minor, yes some advanced players open the major, and are very competitive at duplicate, but we are teaching bridge to beginners, not duplicate.

Is that rule for 4441 hands spelt out anywhere in the NZB teaching material?
That is in the notes, powerpoints or mentioned in the examples?

As for opening 4-4 majors the issues with major-minor hands don't apply so I preach and practise opening 1H with those

Also, Stanley you say "we are teaching bridge to beginners, not duplicate"
Is there a difference?

What do you personally open with 4-4-4-1 hand Nick?  Suggest you just teach them what you do.

And no, there is nothing in the NZB notes, but that doesn't matter, does it,as you have already written in these forums that you strongly disagree with having a set of universal rules!

Is there a difference between bridge and duplicate?, you ask. May I suggest you go to the Akarana Bridge club website and read their history. Since 44 years ago,when Trials were first held to choose NZ teams, the Akarana club has had its members represent NZ 186 times in the Open, 135 in the Womens, and 47 times in the Seniors. I mention this because Akarana does not play duplicate, just Teams events or similar. 44 years ago, 2 members from this newly formed club represented NZ after the first trials were held, and one of those, Mike Cornell, has just played in Poland. (As I am sure you are aware).

There are, I think, 17 members of the Akarana club out of 24 in Poland as I write this, and this is the best performance, ever, by NZ teams, (if you exclude IMVHO, beating Australia in Sydney over 120 boards in 1974, for the right to represent our Zone in the Bermuda Bowl).

If  one is really keen on improving ones bridge, many players, even newer players, play and practise at home, even having bridge evenings for a few tables. They don't play duplicate, something that was invented to encourage mass participation. In fact when one reads the books on duplicate, one can see a completely different mindset to pure bridge. The Akarana players in the late 60's and early 70's, also did very well at duplicate, as did the experts from Christchurch. But this was mostly because they all played Acol, (not a common system in NZ at that time), quickly into the bidding, and quickly out again, while the old fashioned players were often outbid.  Nowadays everyone is in the bidding, and that advantage has long gone.

And yes when I teach, I put far more emphasis on the majors. But if one does not mention the minors, it is often difficul for the other partner to envisage NT.

I recently heard an interesting comment from another teacher on this theme:

"I have a devil of a  job trying to get them to remember to open the lower ranking suit"

Well, a good way to get people to remember a rule is to explain the logical reason why the rule exists

(A bit harder if there isn't one :)

Regarding your latest post Nick. With hand a. the question should be, do you want to be in game, as one can make 4H or 4S? If yes, either respond 2S, not 2D, or bid 2H over 2D. A part score in either major would be reasonable. No one should be playing this hand in 2D, that is not bridge.

With hand b, the answer is 2C. Partner has at least 4 clubs, as they don't have 4D, or 4H or 4S. I didn't find that too difficult, actually.

Sure, there is a problem if opener is 4-5 in the red suits and responder is 5-4 in the majors (as in Giles's first example)

A 4-4 heart fit is likely to be missed.

And one can't solve that problem without creating worse ones 

But that is no reason to create a similar problem when opener is 4-4 in the red suits.

This was a hand from a recent Mini Moos (for novices) event.

Dealer West; all vul

                            North

                            S: J 7

                            H: 9 6

                            D: K J 9 7 3

                           C: A 10 7 3

West                                                      East

S: A 8                                              S: K 6 5 3 2

H: A K J 5                                         H: Q 8 7 3

D: 6 5 4 2                                         D: Q 10

C: Q J 4                                            C: 9 5

                           South

                          S: Q 10 9 4

                          H: 10 4 2

                          D: A 8

                          C: K 8 6 2

EVERY West opened 1H

Who is prepared to tell them they are wrong?

And what is the answer if they ask “WHY?”

Nick

If the question is why, the answer is to give as much room as possible to describe the point range and distribution. In your latest example the bidding is quite able to go, 1D -1S - 1NT - 2H. All pass. And everyone has described their distribution and point count. (Yes I know they don't have an honour in diamonds). I would be far happier to do that than, on other hands, bid hearts and then diamonds and expect partner to know that I only hold 4 hearts.

But in all honesty none of these things happen all that often, and usually nothing bad happens. But why make exceptions to rules when beginners are struggling to remember the basics in the first place?

With  15-19 point 2443 hands surely the standard practice is to open one of a red suit then rebid notrumps?

unless

[a]  partner bids the other red suit

or

[b]  the LH opponent intervenes with a bid of a black suit and you don't have a stopper in that suit

So the sequence 1H followed by 2D always shows 5 hearts

unless

The opener has three  4-card suits with singleton in partners suit

or

Partner has had to improvise in scenario [b] above

In either case the 4-3 fit is likely to be the best contract unless partner is clearly able to put the side in a better one