[Antrax]

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Playing 5-card majors and 15-17 NT, do you open this hand 1NT or 1♠ (planning to rebid 2NT)?
Does it matter if responder can find out whether you hold a five-card major after opening 1NT?

[relknes]

1♠ for me, planning to treat it as 18 HCP on account of the 5 card suit. I would prefer to have more concentrated values for this (or at least not KJ tight), but still, that's my call.
And no, it wouldn't matter if I had a way to find out about a 5 card major after 1N.

[aguahombre]

IMO, this is and I/A judgement thread. The KNR evaluates it to about 18, and so do I.

1S.

[the hog]

1S. A 5 card suit and 2x10s

[P_Marlowe]

It does matter, that you have or have not the chance to find out, that you
have a 5 card major in your NT opening.

If I dont, this is a 1S opening bid.

It matters also, how heavily you upgrade into a NT opening bid, if you regular
upgrade 14 counts, than the hand may be far to good.

In the end, if I had agreed to open all bal. hand with 1NT, I would go with this,
selling the hand as 15-17, but the plusses for upgrading are there, lots of controls,
a strong 5 card suit, the only minus being KJ in hearts.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Zelandakh]

I like frequent upgrades and think this is worth it despite the ♥KJ. It is close though and if playing a style with fewer upgrades then 1NT is ok too.

[EricK]

Although this hand is clearly very strong for 1NT, the trouble with opening 1♠ is that it wrong sides NT after the (almost) inevitable 1NT response. partner might be put to a difficult guess at trick one with the fate of the contract depending on his choice (of course he might not!). I'm not sure if the chances of this happening are more or less than the chances of our missing a good game or slam because we underbid our hand by 3/4 of a point or so.

[SteveMoe]

I'd open the posted hand 1NT given the ♥KJ. Rearrange it a bit to ♠AQ984 ♥93 ♦AK10 ♣KJ10 and it's a clear 1♠ opening bid.