Expert: Unhunk - 11/5/2009

Question
QUESTION: My partner opens 1 Club and I have the following:

AKQJ 8764 K87 96

What should I answer?

ANSWER: Hi,

Sticklers for the rules might respond 1H and I guess they can't really be criticized for doing so. My opinion, though, is that because of its strength, the spade suit can almost be treated as a five card suit and that's really what your hand is all about. I would therefore "lie" and respond 1S planning to bid hearts on my next turn. You should still be able to find a 4-4 heart fit if you have one and the worst that may happen is that you end up in a 4-3 spade fit rather than 3NT and this might not even be so terrible.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Suppose you had this hand in response to a opening of 1 club:

A Q 10 7     8 7 6 4    K J 7    K 6

What would you answer

Answer
Hi,

I would respond 1H. Of course the spades are still much better than the hearts and some people might choose to bid 1S but I feel that if the rules of the bidding system say that you should bid 4 card suits up the line at the one level then you should do your best to follow those rules. It's one thing if the spades are AKQJ...and even then some players might choose to respond 1H...but for the most part if you decide to make exceptions to the agreed upon rules too often it will tend to negatively affect partnership confidence.