[BridgeHands]

Hello BBO Friends,

BridgeHands just published and EMAILed our free eMagazine newsletter #15 to our subscribers. That means our prior issue #14 is now available online. These articles discuss Forcing and Non-Forcing bids. Each newsletter is over 10 pages so we get into considerable depth on each topic. In fact, in part 2 many of the concepts and bidding scenarios are for the more seasoned intermediate (Life Master) level.

http://bridgehands.com/Services/eMagazine_.../eMag_NN_14.htm

Along with our newsletter, we've also prepared an online 20 question quiz to test your knowledge. If you computer is equipped to play audio, we've also included several music selections to enjoy while working on the quiz:

http://www.bridgehands.com/Quiz/Forcing_Bi.../quizmaker.html

BridgeHands welcomes you to subscribe to our free newsletters (Newcomer-Novice or Intermediate-Advanced):

http://visitor.const...m=1101095662918

Happy trails,

BridgeHands

[awm]

While this newsletter is nice, all these sorts of things consistently miss some of the great mystery sequences of standard bidding. I'm always amazed that none of the following auctions ever find their way into discussions of forcing vs. non-forcing and showing minimum vs. extras:

1♠ - 2♦
2NT

1♠ - 2♦
3♦

1♦-2♣
2NT

The SAYC notes seem to indicate both that (1) opener's rebid in notrump or responder's suit can/should be minimum values and (2) opener's rebid is forcing because responder's 2/1 promises a rebid. This combination is rather non-sensical when a 2/1 bid can be based on a balanced 11-count (or a nice 10) as in SAYC.

Yet somehow this issue was entirely dodged in an entire book about SAYC, and was also dodged in this newsletter's discussion of forcing vs. non-forcing bids!

BTW my preference is to play all of the above as showing extras (with a minimum, opener is not allowed to rebid above two of his original suit). But this leads to some interesting things like opener rebidding a three card diamond suit in the auction 1♦-2♣-2♦ to avoid showing extras. I know a lot of "standard" bidders in the main bridge club would play all of the above as non-forcing.

[helene_t]

It is discussed in Lawrence's 2/1 Workbook (in the context of 1♦-2♣ that is, the major suit follow-ups are different from SAYC anyway)