BBO Discussion Forums: Puzzling bidding question - BBO Discussion Forums

I'm of the opinion that if 1of a major promises five cards, then you need to open 1 of a major whenever you can. If you have a good enough hand to reverse then you can look at other options. If you don't open the five card major then partner assumes you have four at most and it becomes difficult to communicate that you have 5 unless your system has a backdoor way to let you show the 5 card major.

So I'd open the OP hand 1 heart and if partner can't support hearts, rebid diamonds until the cows come home.

Cyberyeti, on 2017-November-27, 11:01, said:

Most of the books and articles (example) I have seen on the idea either talk about exercising judgement or explicitly point out that the suits should be good, so I would regard your approach as mainstream. The question becomes where the cutoff lies - QJxxx and A9xxxx are not great suits but also not bad, so I could easily see this hand coming up on either side of the line for different pairs.

http://bridgewinners...m-2-haddt8zepv/

I'm also a 1 ♥ bidder on this hand. Sure it has 11 red cards, but poor suit quality really pushes me toward bidding the major first. Make it S - H KQ10xx D AQ10xxx C xx and I'd bid it naturally starting with 1 ♦ - still not many HCP, but much better playing strength.

Responder could always make a negative double if no other bid fits and follow up with a NT bid later. This might by agreement show more than 13-15 if that's what a direct 3 NT over 1 ♠ would show.

MrAce, on 2017-November-28, 01:14, said:

As the first respondent writes, there is quite a difference between ♦+♥ and ♦+♠ on these hands and it is unwise to draw too many conclusions from one hand type when speaking of the other.

Zelandakh, on 2017-November-27, 12:03, said:

We're quite specific about it, it's an extension of playing 1♥-1♠-3♦ as 5-5 one of top 2, 3 of top 5, not a huge amount outside. We allow a little latitude when 6-5 but not this much.