[1mullida]

I have had the experience of Opening a 1 Club bid when I had 13 or 14 High Card Points and 4 spades, 4 hearts, 3 diamonds and 2 clubs. I want to tell my partner that I have 13 points but I do not want to get stuck in 1 Club if no one else bids. The same problem occurs with an Opening 1 Diamond bid when I have 3 diamonds with the same distribution as I already indicated. Is there any known method of dealing with this issue between yourself and partner .so that you don't get stuck in a 1 Club or 1 Diamond bid with only 2 or 3 cards in those suits?

Thx
1mullida

[smerriman]

I don't know about others, but I'm perfectly happy to be left in 1♣ or 1♦. If partner can't come up with a single response (and they normally would on borderline hands), that means the opponents have the majority of the points - if they can't find a way to enter the bidding, even going down by a few can still result in a good score.

[wank]

it happens very rarely. if partner has too few points to respond (5 or fewer) the opps will normally bid and even if they don't, they often could make a bigger score by bidding and making a game contract than by defeating you by several tricks in 1 club. if you're worried about it, play longer minor whereby you open 1♦ with 4432.

if it happens in a novice game, it's most likely because partner forgot to respond.

[Tramticket]

1mullida, on 2018-February-07, 22:28, said:

Is there any known method of dealing with this issue between yourself and partner .so that you don't get stuck in a 1 Club or 1 Diamond bid with only 2 or 3 cards in those suits?

Flippant answer: There is a known method of dealing with this issue - switch to four-card majors and all of your opening will promise at least four cards in the suit. You may not want to fundamentally change your system to deal with a very rare occurrence.

If you open a strong (15-17) no trump, the problem will only occur if you hold a balanced 12-14 or a balanced 18-19. If you are in the range 12-14 and partner doesn't have enough to make a one-level response (fewer than 5 HCP) then it is likely that your opponents will compete and spare you the problem. The time when you are most at danger is when you open 1♣ on a two-card suit holding 18-19 - now it is more likely that opponents' will not have enough to compete. But has been said above, it doesn't happen very often.

Lesson to learn: now put yourself in opponent's shoes after the auction starts (1♣), Pass, (Pass). Do you protect? The advice is to consider passing if holding length in clubs - particularly if the opponents are vulnerable - instead of protecting with (say) 1NT. It doesn't happen often, but worth considering.

[NickRW]

Whenever I've played short club openers I prefer NOT to do anything special about responses. It does rarely happen that the bidding get passed out in 1C and you're in a 3=2 fit or whatever - this is just as likely to be a good result as bad (if a tad uncomfortable!)

Some at my local club treat the 1C opener as semi forcing (responder passes garbage with at least 4, preferably 5 clubs) but otherwise always responds with 1D being natural/negative. This means you don't play embarrassing 3=2 fits at the cost of making the auction after 1C-1D a little murky (which they don't give enough thought to)

[pescetom]

NickRW, on 2018-February-08, 05:54, said:

Whenever I've played short club openers I prefer NOT to do anything special about responses. It does rarely happen that the bidding get passed out in 1C and you're in a 3=2 fit or whatever - this is just as likely to be a good result as bad (if a tad uncomfortable!)

Some at my local club treat the 1C opener as semi forcing (responder passes garbage with at least 4, preferably 5 clubs) but otherwise always responds with 1D being natural/negative. This means you don't play embarrassing 3=2 fits at the cost of making the auction after 1C-1D a little murky (which they don't give enough thought to)

I think that the above mentioned solution is considerably worse than the problem.
I agree with your preference, NOT to do anything special.
I play short club habitually and have had more problems with partners who feel obliged to respond with nothing than with partners who cheerfully pass.

[helene_t]

You may consider playing weak jump shifts. With 0-5 points and a 6 card spades for example you respond 2S. Partner will know to pass even with 18 points unless they have good support.

Without a 6 card suit just pass and let partner play 1c. Unless the last opponent bids something which they usually do.

Playing 4 card majors doesn't really solve this problem since it leads to some 4-1 fits instead.

[steve2005]

You can play 1C as forcing and 1D as artificial. Possibly negative or just denying a 4-card major.
But once you start down this road you might as well play Precision.
If you have 13 pts and partner has 0-5 do you really want to keep bidding so you can get doubled or opponents get a chance to find a game?

[pescetom]

helene_t, on 2018-February-08, 12:15, said:

You may consider playing weak jump shifts. With 0-5 points and a 6 card spades for example you respond 2S. Partner will know to pass even with 18 points unless they have good support.

Indeed. That's standard in our system and is probably one of the reasons I have not seen real problems.