[awm]

I'm always disappointed when the thread title is "Am I Going Crazy?" and there is a poll, and "Yes" is not one of the options.

There is a difference between opening 1NT, and rebidding 1NT. When you produce the auction 1m-1♠-1NT, partner will know that you do not have four spades (you would raise) and depending on style you might have raised on some hands with three spades also. So he will only rebid his spades again if he has six, or perhaps five good ones with some shape. This makes it fairly safe to rebid 1NT with a singleton in partner's spade suit. However, opening 1NT is different, because now partner will bid (or transfer to) spades holding any five-card spade suit, since he has the possible upside of finding you with four spades (or three good spades and a side small doubleton).

Since you are playing weak notrump, opening 1♣ and rebidding 1NT with this hand would show 15-17 (huge overbid on these cards, which are worse than a typical 14 because of the location of values). My experience is that opening 1NT with a singleton major usually leads to very poor results, so I will open 1♦ on this one and rebid 2♣ if partner bids the expected 1♠. In general I'm not a fan of reversing my suit order like this, but the alternatives (open 1NT with a singleton, bid and rebid clubs on five to the seven) seem worse.

[Trumpsrule]

Mine is one diamond. The main key with Acol bidding is you guarantee the re-bid unless you bid NT( assume P has only 1 bid, the 1spade bid. 1n is incorrect a singleton and P transfers and passes a 5-1 fit now, terrible result(there are systems allowing this but usually it's a stng NT style so less risk). 1c-1s-1nt is an incorrect bid- too few points. 1c-1s-2c correct but do you really want to be in a 5-2 fit with no club honours? You also really have to bid with these points. There is a semi rule- never lie about majors --therefore-- I play 1d-1s-2c as showing minimum 4-4 with opening points. This allows minimum points to be shown, Pass or correct and both your suits now known with no lie in the majors. On the whole I think the best bid with your lie being the smallest possible.

[ayebee]

Hard cases make bad law. This hand is not easy with standard acol but beware of changing your system to fit this hand. You may create more problems that you solve.

Face it, this is not a good 14 count. the king of spades very likely won't pull it's weight and deduct another point for the club bus tickets and you have a hand barely strong enough for a 12-14 opener let alone a rebid showing 15-17 points.

Open 1NT and partner is highly likely to take out into spades - worst case with nil points and a suit similar to your clubs.

Open 1c and then what? You really don't want to revid such an anemic suit. You are happy if partner responds 1D or 2C but over 1H raising to 2H is likely to get you too high as partner will assume you have four.
Over 1S 1NT is an overbid. Play of a no trump contract will be difficult as spades will be blocked. 2c is feeble and may lead to a missed game if partner is strong.

The best feature of your hand is the diamond suit so if you bid at all why not bid it. If you lose the auction at least partner knows what to lead. You intend to rebid clubs to show the essentially two suited nature of the hand. Granted you risk playing in a 4-2 fit in diamonds as partner will take you for 5-5 or 5-4 but at least you will have the top honours.

But have you considered passing?. Game is likely to be out of reach unless partner has an opening hand. You know that spades split badly if the opposition bid them
and your short suited honours look more defensive than offensive.

[Cyberyeti]

As an aside, this is one of the few good hands for a style I hate which is played by a number of Acol club pairs where a 1N rebid is wide range but overlaps the weak NT so is 12-16 or similar with implications for shape when in the lower range (often a stiff in pd's suit).

[Jinksy]

MatthiasK, on 2014-September-07, 10:17, said:

I don't think so. Partner bids your singleton, your long suit is weak, the points are in the short suit ...
this hand is not worth 15 hcp now, IMHO.

Then give it an extra point or two outside Cs. Eventually you're going to run into the same problem (and if it's not strong enough for a strong NT, it's not strong enough to reverse).

[msjennifer]

I shall open 1D and if Partner bids 1H I shall bid 2 H.If instead he bids 1S then I bid 1 NT.I shall bid 2C only if his bid is 1NT.

[ampermsn]

Call me crazy but last time I looked you must alert opening a no-trump with only one card in a suit ? It is not concidered a standard bid to open No-Trump with a singleton and many directors would make an adjustment if there was damage and were called.

[Zelandakh]

Ampermsn, alerting rules are a matter of regulation and vary according to where you play. The 1NT openers are willing to make that distortion even without an agreement to open with a singleton. Your directors might rule against such an action but they would be wrong - but there are plenty of bad directors around.

To the OP, my first thought was to open 1♦ but would not be upset if partner opened 1NT. I do not like 1♣ though. On the other hand, Helene's example seems like a clear 1♣ opening - and even happy to rebid 2♣ with ♣Qxxxx when it is the cheapest suit like this would be over a 1♠ response.

[MrAce]

ampermsn, on 2014-September-07, 19:32, said:

Call me crazy but last time I looked you must alert opening a no-trump with only one card in a suit ? It is not concidered a standard bid to open No-Trump with a singleton and many directors would make an adjustment if there was damage and were called.

I would not call you crazy but I would think that you are misinformed.

[Tramticket]

This is an ugly hand for those of us who play Acol. What is the least bad bid?

I would open 1D and rebid 2C (including over a 1NT response). This shows an unbalanced hand (tick), a wide point range (tick), five diamonds (oops), four+ clubs (tick). Yes you have mis-led partner about your diamonds - but you usually get a bit more leaway in a minor suit.

[eagles123]

cheers folks, my gut instinct was 1NT but coming around to 1D and rebid 2c. would never consider 1c lol

Eagles