Third Seat Openings
 

It's common, after two Passes, to open light in third seat, but let's not overdo it, it's usually best to have some lead-directing motive in these cases.  Light third seat major openings are especially common, often on a 4-card suit, and Drury (covered elsewhere) is generally used to check back on the soundness of that 3rd seat opening.

 

 

17th May, 2006                Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

In third seat, some players habitually open on any old trash.  But, there should always be a reason for a light 3^rd hand opening bid.  Here, for example, there is absolutely no reason for East to open 1♦ with such a bad hand and bad suit.  Now, opening 1♥ is a different story, there’s a bid with a purpose!  True, 1♥ is supposed to show a 5-card suit, but the lead-directing benefit of the bid outweighs that deficiency.

 

31st May, 2006                  Board 5       Dealer North        N-S Vul

 

 

Most players would open this hand in any seat, even though it is hardly a thing of beauty.  Playing a 5-card major system, in 1^st or 2^nd seat, a 1♣ opening would be called for, the bid dictated by the system, and the bid most likely to provide a good foundation for a constructive auction.  But, in third seat, things change somewhat.  Here, with this apology for an opening bid, opposite a passed hand, we are not really in a constructive situation, we are merely competing.  Furthermore, we are quite likely to end up defending.  These two factors suggest that we make our first bid count in another way … as a lead-director.  So, rather than bid that pitiful Club suit, we’d try 1♠ … sure, Partner may think we have 5 of them, but hopefully we can survive that … and, at least she’ll know where our strength is.

 

 

28th June, 2006                Board 2, Board 26, Board 32

 

Coincidentally, there were three hands this Wednesday where a 3^rd seat player (after two Passes) had to decide whether or not to throw in a lead-directing 4-card major on a marginal hand.  Here they are, in each case it’s gone Pass, Pass:

 

Bd 2, West                  Bd 26, West                Bd 32, East

Non-Vul                       Vul                               Vul

♠ Q54                          ♠ 863                           ♠ AQ52

♥ AK95                       ♥ AQ84                       ♥ Q6

♦ K52                          ♦ AT7                          ♦ Q863

♣ 975                          ♣ JT4                          ♣ J98

 

We would pass all three of these hands in 1^st or 2^nd chair … yes, even the first one, those square 12-counts don’t really do it for us.

 

In third seat, on Board 2, we’d open this 1♥, notwithstanding our 5-card major system … most of the time we’ll end up defending this one, and when we do we’d really like Partner to lead Hearts.  Actually, we’d open 1♥ even if we were vulnerable here (though it’s less appealing), so much do we want a Heart lead.

 

On Board 26, we would advise passing.  Yes, it would be nice to suggest a Heart lead, but we are alarmingly vulnerable with a square distribution … the danger of Partner competing and depositing us in -200 territory is quite real … we don’t think that the Heart suit is that good, the risk/reward ratio does not seem to be in our favor.  But if we were non-vulnerable, we’d give 1♥ a shot.

 

On Board 32, we’d also advise a Pass … true, the shape is better this time, but that’s off-set by the abundance of Queens … and again, there is the vulnerability issue.

 

Our advice for light third-seat situations is:

(a)    Be wary of opening light when vulnerable;

(b)   When you do open light, bid a good suit;

(c)    Consider violating the 5-card major style if the suit is good;

(d)   Don’t feel obligated to open garbage in 3^rd seat, have a lead-directing purpose.

 

3rd October, 2007             Board 1      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

This is not a hand that we would open in 1^st or 2^nd seat, those 4-4 11-counts are just not enough.  But, in 3^rd seat, there’s a lot to be said for saying something, provided that we have a reason to bid.  We cannot see a good reason to open 1♣, that’s unlikely to help us to compete for the contract and may well get Partner off to a disastrous lead.  A pointless bid in our opinion.  Even playing 5-card majors, we would open this (in third seat) with 1♠ for two reasons:

-         Getting Spades into the auction gives us a good chance to push the opponents up to the 3-level.

-         If we end up defending and Partner is on lead, we’d love a Spade lead.

 

 

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