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Zelandakh, on 2020-February-26, 06:01, said:
I have to say I am somewhat disappointed in you in this argument CY. I am fairly sure that you yourself have called this argument out in previous threads where you were on the other side. It seems to happen in almost every evaluation thread for balanced hands. The simple truth is that while the 4C evaluation is extremely useful you have to be careful in using it in combination with traditional hcp ranges. A 20-21 balanced range is in 4C terms probably about a point lighter, so akin to perhaps 18.55-20.5. When seen in these terms, the 4C evaluation of 20.85 can be understood as being a completely normal 22- balanced hand, which is indeed its DK evaluation.
The point can be illustrated further by moving some cards around. Take that KQ bare in clubs, which is the main reason for downgrading. If we move a small spade to clubs, we find that the evaluation actually goes down, to 20.8 (for the 2) or 20.75 (for the 9). This in turn shows the point Tramticket made earlier, that the 5 card suit offsets the doubleton honour.
So sure, use the 4C evaluator but at least then have the decency to be honest about it and not give the impression that the number that pops out is directly comparable to standard balanced hcp evaluations. In short, if the NT ranges under discussion were 4C:20-21 and 4C:22-23 then it is quite clear that this hand, as well as many standard balanced Milton:22 counts, would be a 2NT opener. But the actual range is not expressed in 4C points. Your argument as to why this should only be evaluated as a 2NT opener on that scale therefore needs a little work.
The point can be illustrated further by moving some cards around. Take that KQ bare in clubs, which is the main reason for downgrading. If we move a small spade to clubs, we find that the evaluation actually goes down, to 20.8 (for the 2) or 20.75 (for the 9). This in turn shows the point Tramticket made earlier, that the 5 card suit offsets the doubleton honour.
So sure, use the 4C evaluator but at least then have the decency to be honest about it and not give the impression that the number that pops out is directly comparable to standard balanced hcp evaluations. In short, if the NT ranges under discussion were 4C:20-21 and 4C:22-23 then it is quite clear that this hand, as well as many standard balanced Milton:22 counts, would be a 2NT opener. But the actual range is not expressed in 4C points. Your argument as to why this should only be evaluated as a 2NT opener on that scale therefore needs a little work.
I use that as a guide, the 5 card suit is good, but in most cases needs 2 entries to dummy to make it good (compare to AQJ10x and ♣Kx), this hand opposite an 8 or 9 count is probably worth its full 22, but not opposite a 4 count which is where I care whether it's 21 or 22.