BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

♠ AKQJ ♥ — ♦ A62 ♣ A Q 10 7 5 4

AS DeAler, what opening bid would you make on this hand?

THE Acol system requires a hand with a minimum of five quick tricks, combined with playing strength, to qualify for the strongest bid of all, an opening 2 ♣ , but this rule has one exception — when the predominant suit is clubs, you may be up to half a quick trick short.

if your six-card suit were any of the others, you could safely open with a strong Two, forcing for one round only. As it is, your alternatives are a slight overbid of 2 ♣ or an underbid of 1 ♣ .

in fact, 2 ♣ is the better choice, especially as partner will know from the subsequent rebid of 3 ♣ that you may well not hold your full five quick tricks.

however, he will know that you have a powerful hand, which you consider worth a play for game, even if it doesn’t quite run to a slam.

in practice, when this hand arose at the table, 1 ♣ was opened with the result that a Grand slam was missed!