[Kalvan14]

Scoring: XIMP

1N - (P) - 2H* - (P) - ?

*: transfer to spades

---

Do you privilege the point count or the quality and the fit?
1N: 15-17

[hrothgar]

3♦ showing

4 card support
doubleton Diamond
Max 1NT opening

The nice controls and xx in Diamonds definitely improve the hand

[FrancesHinden]

Even if a super-accept shows "a maximum" this is clearly worth it.

I supper-accept on about 75%+ of hands with 4-card support on the grounds that if partner has a minimum it's pre-emptive.

As hrothgar suggests, if you are a serious partnership it's worth discussing what you bid when you don't bid 2S. There are various schemes: the simplest is to break to a good suit (3H here, though that prevents partner re-transferring at the 3-level), or you can break to a low doubleton, or.... I break to Ax or Kx, or to the first step without such a holding.

Some people only break to 3-trump suit with a minimum, so partner knows it's effectively a pre-empt.

[Miron]

I play 3♠ as 4-card fit and minimum.
If this is not possible, just 2♠ (I don't like it that much, invite will be accepted).

[Codo]

easy superaccept, with 3 Spade, 3 Heart or 3 Diamond, whatever way you play, 3 Heart in my normal partnership.

[Kalvan14]

I know the argument for showing features. It is also the best way to give opponents a roadmap of declarer's hand. I grant you that it may be useful in a limited number of hands (mostly for slam exploration). How many times does damage?

[Fluffy]

2♠

[luis]

It's probably a partnership style question.
If your policy is to invite very light then 2♠ is enough, there is no reason to go down in 3 when pd has a very bad hand with 5 spades and was just signing off.
If you invite solid then a jump to 3♠ to protect is mandatory.

Luis

[jdeegan]

2♠ It's very close to the dividing line for me. It only matters in two cases: pard is broke or pard has a near game try hand.

Broke: 4.25 tricks in ♠, 1.25 tricks in ♦ ruffs, 1.5 tricks in ♥, and 0.25 tricks in ♣. A total expectancy of 7.25 tricks. Useful fitting cards for pard to hold would be the ♠ Q or QJ (+0.5), the ♥ K (+1.5), a fourth diamond (+0.75), and the ♣ A, K or J (+0.75 or more). Pard needs TWO cards to make 3♠ a 50-50 chance -- this is too much, I think. Of course, we may go down one in 3♠ when they have a part score in clubs or diamonds, but they face an uphill struggle to find it over 2♠.

Close to game hand: I'll bet that most games reachable only after this particular super acceptance will depend on the heart hook. Vul at IMPs it might be worth the stretch.

If you super accept with this 15 HCP (albeit a very good 15) hand with a useful doubleton, pard will learn to be cautious opposite the next super acceptance, and you may miss a game. Can one afford to play such a wide range of the super acceptance (16 dummy points up to 18)? How would you like to give up the 1NT-Pass-2NT (or equivalent) game try? Pard opens 1NT and your choice is Pass or 3NT.

[joshs]

I usually play:
1N-2H(x-fer):
3C,3D,3H = Doubleton without the Q (or the AK, KJ, AJ). Max hand. 4 trumps
2N = 4 trumps, max, no offensive doubleton
3S= Good Min, 4 trumps, offensive doubleton.
2S=Everything Else

So this hand is a classic example of a 3S bid for me.

[Cascade]

I like to play only one super-accept. We use the step above the trump suit - 1NT 2♦; 2♠ and 1NT 2♥; 2NT. This achieves two things:

1. It gives limited information to the opponents

2. It most situations it allows responder to continue with his rebid plan

After the super-accept we do not need an invitational balanced sequence so we play the identical structure that we play without the super-accept with minor changes. The obvious change that 1NT 2♦; 2♠ 3♥ and 1NT 2♥; 2NT 3♠ are not invites. You could play retransfers and some special meaning to 3Maj rebid. We also play 1NT 2♦; 2♠ 2NT = whatever 2♠ would have meant over the normal 2♥ completion of the transfer. We also need a change when responder jumps to 4Maj since we play this as a mild slam try without the super-accept but it is needed with invitational hands (and marginal invite hands) after the super-accept.

[jdulmage]

hrothgar, on Mar 5 2006, 07:12 PM, said:

3♦ showing

4 card support
doubleton Diamond
Max 1NT opening

The nice controls and xx in Diamonds definitely improve the hand

Exactly.

[coyot]

Agree with the system that shows good doubleton aka ruffing power. If you manage to hit partner's empty side suit, this might be two extra tricks to make the game contract while everyone else plays in 2M+2.

I don't worry about giving too much information to opponents (which might help them to defeat my partscore) if it allows me to bid good game contracts.

[whereagles]

3♠, or any other feature-showing bid.

The club queen is rather sucky, but all the rest is pure chunk

[Codo]

I like to show features to find some games we may not find in another way.

Playing strong NT I simply believe (no simulation done), that the downsides (roadmap) are smaller then the upsides (reaching boarderline games).

If you play weak NT, you are doing even better: You simple refuse to play any kind of retransfer and the well defined hand is tabled as dummy.