What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for August 2012

The best submission for August was from Peter Hollands.

Hand:  Sitting East, dealer West, All Vulnerable, Matchpoints:

J5  J75  QJ953  K107

AK87643  -  AK2  A96

Bidding:	West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1	Pass
	1NT	Pass	?

Comments:     Knowing it was an underbid I just bid 4 to avoid a misunderstanding. What do you bid if

(6 and 7 are cold)

Hey Pete,

(a) What do you bid in a completely undiscussed partnership playing standard?

In an undiscussed partnership, I would be more inclined to open the hand 2. The hand may not fit in with the 'expert standards' of what a 2 opening looks like but here are the reasons why I think it's warranted:

1) This may sound cliche but the auction may go 1-all pass. It's true that we have a heart void but that doesn't mean that partner might muster up a response. Let's give partner QJxxx of hearts and a doubleton spade, and that might be enough for the opponents to stay shut and 4 is on a 2-2 break.

2) If I open 1 and partner does indeed have enough to respond, what am I going to rebid over 1-1NT without any agreements?

Sometimes I view the 2 opening not as a 100% slam interest hand, but there are times where I do not want partner to pass a 1-level opening to make sure that we get to game. If the auction goes 2-2-2-3, some cuebidding may still allow us to stay at the 4 or 5 level.

Having said that, I'm not entirely sure that I can still get to slam. The auction will start 2-2-2-3 and now opener has a choice between showing long spades or their 3 card diamond support. If opener chooses to bid 3 then responder can bid 4 cuebid, or if that will be understood as natural then you can either make a choice between 4 or 5. I may lean towards 5 because I haven't exactly promised much with 2 then 3, maybe opener might have AQT9xxx AQ Ax Ax. If opener has some sort of Acol 2 in spades then they would probably have bid 2-2-4 so the slower route would tend to show more HCP. If the auction has gone  2-2-2-3-3-5 then no doubt opener will press on with either 6 or 6 because of AKx in diamonds. (Also, if the auction goes 2-2; 2-3; 3-3NT, then opener can now bid 4 showing support).

This won't get me to 7 but I think getting to slam is a pretty good effort.

(b) What do you bid in a partnership with whatever agreements you want?

I think this would be similar to what I mentioned in (a), because opening 2 is very attractive after the auction goes P-P to me as I am afraid of 1 getting passed out!

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