Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - July 12, 2021 -2C or 3C?

 

Vic:

East should not open either one of those two bids. 

The overwhelming majority of modern day players have a partnership agreement that an Opening Bid of 2C promises a 22+ point hand. Be that the case with the EW pair above, East should clearly not open 2C. Weak Two bids promise exactly a 6 card suit. That means 2C would not be an appropriate bid if East were trying to show a weak hand either.

 Preemptive three level bids promise exactly a 7 card suit which is what East is holding. The problem is that the East hand is NOT weak. East has a (bottom of line) opening bid point count. That means 3C would not be an appropriate opening bid either.

 One alternative possibility would be for East to open 1C which would give them the option to rebid clubs later in the auction to show a 6+ card suit.

 Another alternative possibility, given that East has reason to believe South has a big hand, would be for East to open 4C or even 5C in an attempt to keep NS (who might very well have a major suit golden fit) out of the auction. EW are not vulnerable which lowers the penalty for going down. Looks to me like NS can make slam in hearts or spades which would give EW a much worse score than going down a few tricks in a club contract.

 Question: The hand record above indicates that West was dealer which apparently means that West & North both passed. North has a 13 point hand with 2.5 quick tricks & a very nice club singleton. I would expect North to bid 1H which eliminates the question of what East should "open".