Non vulnerable vs. vulnerable in duplicate bridge, West dealt and opened a "weak two" (hearts), which an expert, Frank Stewart, called "cheesy" with the following hand:
♠ 2
♡ K98743
♢ J42
♣ KJ6
I consider the singleton spade for offense. Take away my two jacks and give me a queen of hearts in place of the nine as compensation, and I would open two hearts with a hand like this:
♠ 2
♡ KQ8743
♢ 642
♣ K96
But I would rather pass and play defense with the actual hand (unless my partner bids strongly) because 1) because I have only one, not two, of the three top honors in my six card suit, 2) because I have more strength outside than inside my suit, and 3) because the jacks are good "nuisance" cards that interrupt potential sequences for the opponents, creating "impure" suits and "negative adjustments" to the law of total tricks, as described by Larry Cohen.
Is this hand in fact a better "defensive" than "offensive" hand?