What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for November 2007

Anne Paul made the best submission for the month of November.

Hand: With both sides vulnerable, West is dealer:

KQ108642  8  Q653  K

-  A752  A9  AQ98743

Bidding:	West	North	East	South
	1	Pass	2	Pass
	2	Pass	3	Pass
	3	Pass	4	Pass
	4	Pass	5	All Pass

Comments:     We are playing 4 card Acol with multis. Should I have opened this hand 1 or 2 multi?  With 10 points and 5 losers I decided to open as I did. Over 3 should I bid 4?

Sartaj's Reply:

Hi Anne,

This is a very interesting hand.

Firstly, I agree with you in not opening 2 multi. The hand, as you appreciated, is very strong in playing strength.

If you permit me a slight digression, you might have heard that Stephen Burgess used to advocate opening 4 on all hands with a 7 card major and 4 cards in another suit. It was his appreciation of the power of such hands, the obstructive value of the 4 opening and the inability of the pseudo-scientific approach to express the real playing value of hands in this realm.

In the modern age though, preempting with so much stuff in the side suits has become very unfashionable and 1 is a popular choice.

So while I would advocate a 1 opening, I think in the subsequent auction you were unable to show how strong your spades really were. Your partner just heard you bid the cheapest number of spades twice in the auction and didn't really appreciate that playing in spades was ever an option with their void.

I think that bidding 4 either over 2 or over 3 would be a better strategy to tune in partner on the "realness" of that spade suit.

Regards
Sartaj Hans

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