Open 2 Clubs?

Hi Heidi,

How should North open? Should North bid 2♣ instead of 1♣ so partner would not pass?

All vulnerable, East is dealer:

	North ♠AQJ ♥AT ♦J ♣AKQJ832
West ♠KT742 ♥K97 ♦95432 ♣		East ♠965 ♥J6532 ♦T8 ♣T97
	South ♠83 ♥Q84 ♦AKQ76 ♣654

N	E	S	W
	Pass	Pass	Pass
???

Heidi's Answer:

I think North is strong enough to open 2♣ for sure.

With such a lovely ♦ suit South might even jump to 3♦ showing a nice hand with a good suit. But South with 11 HCP should propel the partnership to at least a small slam. Their Partner opened 2♣ showing the equivalent of 22+ points.

North will bid 4♣ because that is their strong suit.

South will maybe just ask for Aces? They really shouldn't (no first or second round controls of the suits) but they are stuck.

I think it is tough to get to the 7 level and as it turns out 13 tricks relies on the ♠ finesse (which works) because the ♦ suit is blocked. There are no entries to the South hand so North would have to overtake the ♦ and once they do that the suit does not run.

It's tough to play in NT also which is a better contract. North might have no idea South's ♦ suit is so good and South really just has ♦ not the other suits.

Suggested Auction:

N	E	S	W
	Pass	Pass	Pass
2♣	Pass	3♦	Pass
4♣	Pass	4NT	Pass
5♠	Pass	5NT	Pass
6♦	Pass	6NT	Pass
Pass???	Pass

This is no means a perfect auction at all. But South will be thinking SLAM for sure once North opens 2♣. So when they ask for Aces and then Kings they get stuck when North bids 6♦. They are now past the 6♣ slam they wanted to be in. (Which one could argue they should have known.) So they try 6NT. Missing two Kings it is hard to bid to the 7 level.