[Quantumcat]

Tonight at board 17 my partner West gets dealt this beauty.

Scoring: MP

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Auction goes, three passes to my partner who bids 2♣, I bid 3♦, (2♦ is negative) he bids 3♠, I bid 4♠ all out.

We should only make 5, but North made the fortunate lead of the ♦A so we made 6 (maybe she thought South had a singleton - but then if she counted, so would West!). If my hand had been a little different, with a small club singleton and the ♦A instead of the ♣Q and ♦Q, we could make 6 easily but I imagine the auction would have gone the same way anyway.

Everything is always so hazy after a 2C opening, the person in charge usually just randomly guesses a contract; sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

What are some agreements so that we actually know exactly what's going on after a 2♣ opening?

(By the way: partner told me I had the most hilarious face he'd ever seen when he tested whether he could count the thirteen by pulling one trump - and both showed out)

[TylerE]

I think the auction should go:

2♣ - p - 2♦* - p
4♠ * - p - 4NT - p
5[H]* - p - 5♠ - ap

* - Yes, 2♦. Playing this as purely negative is dumb. Responder should strain to stay out of partners way without a BIG reason for not doing so. Showing a diamond suit here ought to be at least a good 6 bagger with spots.
* - Shows a very long good suit, denies full 2♣ HCP count, but basically a hand with game by itself, 9.5-10.5 playing tricks or so with an 8+ card suit.
* - Two aces (if partner shows 3, bid 6, if partner shows all 4 (unlikely on this auction), try 7.

[hrothgar]

Number of points here:

1. I wouldn't open 2♣ with the hand in question. This hand might easily produce 1 defensive trick if the opponent's decided to compete over a Spade contract. (I suspect that you'll get the Ace of Hearts. The Ace of Spades could easily get ruffed out).

Personally, I think that this hand is best treated as a high level Spade preempt.

2. I don't think that the East hand is strong enough for a positive response, let alone 3♦. 3♦ eats up an enormous amount of bidding space. KQTxx and a side Jack isn't a good enough hand to justify the lost of bidding space.

[pbleighton]

I agree with Richard.

Peter

[ralph23]

Quantumcat, on Jul 20 2007, 08:44 AM, said:

Everything is always so hazy after a 2C opening, the person in charge usually just randomly guesses a contract; sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

What are some agreements so that we actually know exactly what's going on after a 2♣ opening?

Here's one system:

With no interference:

2♥ by responder shows a really bad hand. No Ace or King and at most 3HCP.

3 of a minor is natural shownig a very good suit, a 6-bagger with two of the top three honors.

2♠ is artificial for ♥, showing this kind of suit.
2NT is artificial for ♠, showing this kind of suit.

All other hands (most frequent) bid 2♦ "waiting".

If they interfere with a X or an overcall:

XX or X says "I have the bad bad 2♥ hand"
Pass says "I would have bid 2♦"
Suit bids are all natural with the suit quality indicated above.

[bid_em_up]

ralph23, on Jul 20 2007, 10:39 AM, said:

3 of a minor is natural shownig a very good suit, a 6-bagger with two of the top three honors.

2♠ is artificial for ♥, showing this kind of suit.
2NT is artificial for ♠, showing this kind of suit.

I've said it before, and I will say it again.

If you keep waiting to hold a 6 card suit headed by 2 of the top 3 honors over a 2C opening, you will end up waiting until hell freezes over before you actually have the opportunity to make the bid.

The odds are that two of the top three honors are likely in the 2C opening hand, and you are better served initially showing any "decent" 5+ card suit that also contains positive response values.

If you do not do this, you often end up consuming too much space in the auction to show your suit (or hand) properly.

This applies to suit bids over interference also.

Other than that, I play what you do.

jmoo.

[ralph23]

bid_em_up, on Jul 20 2007, 11:16 AM, said:

you are better served initially showing any "decent" 5+ card suit that also contains positive response values.

Actually we do (or at least I do) fudge on the suit quality requirement. My partner is more into this requirement more than I am, and I'd make the positive suit response on a good 5-bagger in the majors and just say "I owe you one" when I put down the dummy.