Passing certain "opening hands" in 1st seat
I'm considering making the agreement that, with certain specific shapes, we would pass in 1st seat unless we have enough strength to accept an invite. So we would pass these shapes with 13 HCP, and perhaps with 14 HCP.
Let's say we do this only with precisely 1435 shape. So our 1st seat pass shows either a normal pass or up to 14 HCP with precisely 1435. Certain passed-hand sequences such as 1S:2C show the stronger type.
I believe this is a permitted agreement: the Blue Book says that a pass must not "usually show any values", but here the stronger type represents less than 1% of passes.
My bigger concern is how you would go about disclosing this. Clearly opponents need to know about this agreement, but I'm anticipating that it would be quite difficult to do this effectively. I would particularly want to avoid:
- Confusing the opponents into thinking they need to treat this much differently from a normal pass; or
- Being able to give a good explanation, but only in a way that takes a significant amount of time out of each round.
I would definitely mention it in the system summary that we give at the start of each round. Having done that:
- Should a 1st seat pass be alerted?
- What do you think is the best way to describe this agreement? I find it hard to think of something that is concise without being in some way misleading. (In particular, I don't want to mislead opponents into thinking that the strong option is some weird thing that they need to adjust their bidding for.)
Comments
This is the sort of thing that should definitely go on the system card, and if the ranges are a really long way from where the opponents would likely expect them, explained at the start of the round when you explain your basic system. I don't think it needs an alert on the pass, though. (I've seen/heard described that a "natural" pass is one on which you would also pass with any hand that is weaker than the one you hold, where "weaker" takes things like shape into account.)
The strength of an opening depending on the shape is pretty common; for example, I often pass 4441 12-counts, even though I open quite a lot of 10-counts and will almost always open 12-counts with any shape other than 4441. I don't think my agreement rises to the level of an alert or start-of-round announcement (although it is mentioned in the relevant place on the system card). Your agreement is a bit further away from normal expectations (few players pass 14-counts), so you might want to mention something like "we often pass 1435s even if they are fairly strong, but with other shapes we bid normally" when explaining your system at the start of a round (but I don't think you alert passes – rather, you alert the bid that shows that you passed with a strong hand). In my experience, alerting passes mostly only happens if the range is much narrower than expected. (For example, if my opponents open a strong club, I am very likely to attempt to overcall, to the extent that a pass shows quite a specific hand; if playing online with self-alerts, I usually alert the pass in that situation. I'm not sure whether my partner would alert it playing in person – I don't think I've come up against opponents playing strong club in person.)
(Something similar: in a system I'm working on, a 2D opening shows a single-suited opening hand with spades, minimum if there are only 6 spades, but could be stronger if there are 7. Alerting that bid isn't too hard if it comes up, but it also means that a 1S opening rules out a lot of hands that the opponents might expect to be included. I don't think you alert 1S in a system like this one, which means that you have to at the start of the round make opponents aware of what 2D means so that they can mentally remove those hands from the possibilities for 1S.)
If your "Pass" shows any type of specific hand it should be disclosed on the front page of the system card in a section headed "any unusual aspects of your system that your opponents need to know"