what do you open?
Kicking off a week of minor-suit study with the most basic question: what do you open? Setting aside any devotion you may have to strong club (that’s a conversation for another day, eh?), I hope you’ll weigh in. We open 1C with 3-3 minors an 1D with 4-4 (also 1D with 4-4-3-2). Remember that Gatlinburg hand, when BobKatz was adamant about just bidding 3NT? Shannon and I got to 6D when she had KJTx / AKxx in the minors and had to open it 1D.
Once upon a time I had the unbeatable experience of playing with Norberto Bocchi in a mixed pairs event. I got to try out all kinds of cool things (with limited success, I was somewhere between totally ignorant and a complete novice and I sat there terrified for two full days), including 1D promises 5. If I’d known then what I know now … 
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:26 pm
The players on our teams follow the rules you describe. You are skipping one of the most controversial patterns – 4-5 in the minors.
Our preferred methods are to open 1D if we do not have values for a reverse. The upside is that a 2C rebid shows nine cards and a rebid in the opened minor almost always shows six and maybe the shell for 3NT.
Having said this, I have one partner that always opens 1C on this pattern, and it has been an ongoing debate on rec.games.bride and the Bridge World MSC.
What do you and Shannon do?
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:36 am
As you do, we open 1D without reverse values and rebid 2C. We play rebidding the minor guarantees six — it’s always worth a laugh at the table, because 1C – (anything) – 2C is about the only way our partnership can play 2C. In almost every other situation, 2C is artificial.
I can see where with 3-3 or 4-4 (or 5-5 even) in the minors it would be nice to open the better minor, but I don’t know how you ever really know what 1m opener has.
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:50 pm
First “eh?” and then opening 1 Diamond with 4-5 in the minors? You must be Canadian.