[zasanya]

Scoring: IMP

P-1NT-?
Playing Capelletti What is South's bid?

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Which defence to strong NT would handle this hand best?

[mike777]

i will try 4h.....

[CSGibson]

Agree 4 hearts, though I think it will be a transfer to 4 spades here.

[Gerben42]

Opponent has opened, there is no transfer.
At MP, 4♥ would be clear to keep opps in the dark.
At IMPs, slam should be in the picture. I would bid 2NT, initially showing the minors but when partner chooses 3♣, I will bid 3♥, showing my strong 2-suiter.

This is a useful treatment played by many experts, especially tailored for this situation. With this hand you cannot Dbl, because partner may pass and we beat them twice, but would rather play 6♥. You cannot bid 2♥, that's nonforcing. And you cannot bid 2♦ either, because that would confuse the issue later, for example

(1N) 2♣ - 2♦ .... you're stuck bidding 4♥ again, since any other suit would show that suit.

[CSGibson]

Gerben42, on Oct 17 2008, 01:05 AM, said:

Opponent has opened, there is no transfer.

I meant that opponents will likely compete to 4 spades, not that 4 hearts was a request for partner to bid 4 spades. Sorry for the confusion.

[Codo]

I would try 2 Heart.
The chance that this is passed is somewhere around 1 %, so I try to show my second suit later.

I know I know , it is en vogue to play hide and seek and to bid 4 Hearts with these kind of hands. But I don't like my options after 4 Spade is passed round to me, so I try to stay low for the moment.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

First off all, I dont think 2-suiter defences against a
strong NT were designed with the intention to handle
6-5 hands very well.

You have the option to blast game, reasonable, but
given your strength, they may or may not have
game on.

The alternative is, that you bid 2H, intending to bid
diamonds next, if it gets passed out, nothing terrible
will have happened.


With kind regards
Marlowe

[CSGibson]

P_Marlowe, on Oct 17 2008, 05:41 AM, said:

The alternative is, that you bid 2H, intending to bid
diamonds next, if it gets passed out, nothing terrible
will have happened.

You don't think anything terrible has happened if partner passes and we miss a cold game because he has the king of hearts, for example? This is teams, bidding games that have a reasonable chance of making is good, not bidding them is terrible.

[dburn]

Gerben42, on Oct 17 2008, 03:05 AM, said:

Opponent has opened, there is no transfer.
At MP, 4♥ would be clear to keep opps in the dark.
At IMPs, slam should be in the picture. I would bid 2NT, initially showing the minors but when partner chooses 3♣, I will bid 3♥, showing my strong 2-suiter.

I think that by "transfer to 4♠", CSGibson may have meant that West is likely to bid 4♠, perhaps causing another problem.

Not that it would cause you another problem, of course - you would doubtless bid 6♦. After all, "slam should be in the picture". The fact that your partner could not open the bidding, while your RHO has a strong no trump, presumably means only that you might reluctantly give up on a grand slam.

If you bid 2NT to show the minors and then bid 3♥ over 3♣, this does indeed show a strong two-suiter. But it does not necessarily show a strong two-suiter with hearts; rather, it shows a strong minor two-suiter with a heart fragment, perhaps:

♠None ♥A3 ♦KQ1094 ♣AJ10982.

After all, this seems worth a raise of 3♣ to four just in case, and I have a chance better to describe the hand with 3♥ than with 4♣. You, no doubt, would have overcalled 1NT with 5NT, pick a slam, but you may not make one facing such as ♠J87653 ♥J42 ♦32 ♣65.

As to the actual question, I don't know what Cappelletti is. If it involves doubling for penalty, bidding 2♣ with any one-suiter, bidding 2♦ for majors, bidding 2M with that suit and a minor, and bidding 2NT with minors, then I will bid 4♥ and either concede 800 or double the transferred-to 4♠. If on the other hand I can double, or bid 2♣, to show a major and a minor, I will do that.

[han]

Agree that if there is a forcing way to show both suits then I would do that. Otherwise I would maybe also bid 4H, though I am not quite comfortable doing so. I would prefer to take a slower invitational route to 3H, but with the singleton spade I don't think that we can afford that. If 2C promises a major (which I don't think it does in cappaletti) then it would have some merit as we could bid 3D if LHO bids 2S.

The sugestion of slam seems absurd to me.

[y66]

According to Cappelletti Over Notrump by Mike Cappelletti and Ed Lewis, the 2N bid, which usually shows the minors, has a second, infrequent use, namely, to show highly distributional game-going hands -- either a very long one suited hand or a powerful two suiter. Advancer assumes that 2N is for the minors and bids his better minor. Then 3M by overcaller shows a game-going distributional hand too strong for a 2-level Cappelletti bid.

[zasanya]

Scoring: IMP

On table 1
p-1NT-2♥-p
p-p
On table 2
p-1NT-4♥-p
p-p

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On ♦ lead 12 tricks were made on both tables.
Should N raise to 3 when S overcalls 2 ♥?

[CSGibson]

zasanya, on Oct 19 2008, 03:34 AM, said:

Scoring: IMP

On table 1
p-1NT-2♥-p
p-p
On table 2
p-1NT-4♥-p
p-p

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On ♦ lead 12 tricks were made on both tables.
Should N raise to 3 when S overcalls 2 ♥?

No, because the 2♥ bidder should not have the hand shown. It has way too much playing strength for a 2♥ bid. If I see a 6-5 2 heart bid, I expect it to be something like:

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or something similar.