[Iron_Yuppie]

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if you are the dealer, and everyone passes to you.
is it like poker and you should never open fold the button.

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you absolutely can pass. However you can be bidding hands with as little as 11 points while in 1st you need at least 13.

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How old are you? Nobody has required 13 points for an opening since the mid 60's

An commonly used rule of thomb (sp?) on whether to open the bidding in 4th seat is 'McPearsons rule': Open if no. of spades + hcp >=15

The reason obv is that if we have a borderline opening hand in 4th seat, the hcp's are most certainly pretty evenly distributed among the four players, and the hand will certainly be a part score battle. In part score battles spades are teh g00t ldo

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I assume he means 13 pts with shape; for instance, Axxxx, AQxxx, xx, x is a pretty clear opener. All of the stuff I've read consider the 13+ thing "standard", even if most of the better players open light.

A good analogy is probably how a good poker player can open something like KTs in early position with small blinds because he knows how to get away from it, but beginners shouldn't.