A LIGHTER LOOK
Board 5 North deals NS vulnerable
KQJ96542
-
-
KQJ54
AT83 -
854 KQJ7632
AT92 J754
T6 92
7
AT9
KQ863
A872
Whether or not it would be better for North to open this hand 1 or 2 it was stated this week that this interesting and uncommon hand was barred from being opened 2 as it had too few high card points (under 13).
The definition for a green system in the NZ bridge manual is that a 2 bid shows any strong hand (13 + HCP) and is forcing for at least 1 round of bidding. It is prohibited to “psyche” any conventional opening that (a) may contain 13 or more HCP, and (b) is unlimited and (c) does not show a specific suit or a balanced hand. A common green system Acol definition is either a 23+ HCP hand or a <=3 loser hand.
In my earlier post “PLAY AND DEFEND BETTER: FOR IMPROVING PLAYERS 3” I argued for a similar hand that it was permissable to open any 11 HCP 3 loser hand 2 occasionally provided there was no system agreement to do so regularly as this bid would not meet the definition of a gross misrepresentation of a strong hand and so not be considered a psyche bid, which is barred. A gross misrepresentation being a hand with more than a couple of points below 13 HCP. So similarly, I believe the above stronger 2 loser 12 HCP hand may also occasionally be opened 2.
As I stated previously I’m not a director so I would happy if a qualified director could clarify.
Latest Posts on this Thread
- NICK WHITTEN20 Mar 2019 at 05:30PM
I am not a National Director but this is my view:
To suggest a 2C opening with less than 13 HCP is illegal is unmitigated nonsense
The first section (37.1) on psyches says "to shade ... by a couple of points is not a psyche"
So it can't be ruled an illegal psyche when it has 12 pointsThe section on Systems Regulations (24) says of allowed openings for green systems "(the systemic) 2C opening must be strong and forcing at least one round"
"Strong" is defined as 13+ HCP
But that is contradicted in the table in the next section (25.1) saying 2C opening must be "very strong" which is defined in the same section as "at least 19 HCP or equivalent"Can anyone state with a straight face that a 2-loser hand is equivalent to fewer than 19 HCP?
(I can only think of one example of a balanced 19-point hand which is as strong as 4 losers
(KQxxx KQx KQx Ax) all others I can think of are 5 losers or weaker)And these bits from sections 24 and 25 are referring to GREEN systems
But this hand was from a 10A teams tournament where ALL systems are permitted (green, yellow, brown, red, HUMs etc)
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