I have a new partnership who play Benji Acol but have agreed that an opening of 1 Spade will always show at least 5. Any suggestions on how they should announce their agreement at our online game?
I played against a few players recently that do this - it was at a congress in Scotland, so perhaps this is a popular variation there.
There is a policy there that at the start of a round each partnership outlies what they play - typically including NT range, 2-level opens and 5 or 4 card majors...
Whenever someone said ACOL or Benji but 1S shows 5+, "I always asked, what does 1C open mean?", generally the answer would be 4+. What about 4333 shape with 4S? Ah we open 1C - so a club open could be as few as 3. I think I recall that 3-card opening suits are considered natural (so no alert), but it is worth noting.
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At the start of each round say "We play Acol with a 5-card spade suit".
The 1S opening doesn't need to be announced.
Thanks Gordon, that's all I needed to know.
I played against a few players recently that do this - it was at a congress in Scotland, so perhaps this is a popular variation there.
There is a policy there that at the start of a round each partnership outlies what they play - typically including NT range, 2-level opens and 5 or 4 card majors...
Whenever someone said ACOL or Benji but 1S shows 5+, "I always asked, what does 1C open mean?", generally the answer would be 4+. What about 4333 shape with 4S? Ah we open 1C - so a club open could be as few as 3. I think I recall that 3-card opening suits are considered natural (so no alert), but it is worth noting.