[HeartA]

Scoring: IMP

Partner opens 1♣:
North East South West
1♣ pass 1♥ pass
1♠ pass 2♠ pass
2NT pass ?

---

What kind of hands partner has when he bids 2NT? What would you bid as North?

[luke warm]

what's your nt range? i think partner is worried that you supported spades with 3 (taking a preference)... but he has a decent hand else he'd pass 2s on the supposed 4/3 fit... so i think he's 4234 and about 14 hcp (if 15-17 nt)... i think i'd go to 4s because my hand is way better than the bidding so far has shown... as a matter of fact, it has improved some

[inquiry]

HeartA, on Nov 23 2004, 02:19 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

Partner opens 1♣:
North East South West
1♣ pass 1♥ pass
1♠ pass 2♠ pass
2NT pass ?

---

What kind of hands partner has when he bids 2NT? What would you bid as North?

Doesn't really matter.. you hand is golden. A singleton diamond, Great club support cards, real four card support, Good control in hearts. 2♠ was an underbid imho.... I probably would have splintered to 4♦ last time or at the very least bid 3♠. Now, great herds of buffalo will not stop me from making a splinter 4♦.

Back to 2NT for a minute. Some people play this a "balanced hand", but come on, partner didn't open 1NT, and didn't rebid 2NT before. So if you play this, it is sort of meaningless. Others play it as a general force, to seek more information about responders hand. Do you ahve real three card support? Are you hidding club support? Is your hand suited for notrump with likely diamond lead through you? This is the way I like to play.

But again, no matter which you play, come out of the bushes where you hide yourself with the weakkneed wishy-washy 2♠ and leap to 4♦. I just hope it is not too late and you miss your grandslam because of your initial underbid. Imagine partner with...

♠AKxx ♥Axx ♦Axx ♣Axx

After your 2♠ raise, your partner will have great problem envisioning grand slam in spades (5♥, 4♠. 1♦. 1♣. 2♦ ruff or if need be, fall back on ♣ finessee.

[pclayton]

2♠ is a big underbid. For a lot of good reasons, many are now treating the 1♠ rebid as a one round force (I'm coming around). 2♠ is almost a courtesy raise at this point.

Catch up with 4♦. I wouldn't risk 3♣.

99% of 'club' players would bid 4♠ at this point. This is wrong; communicate to pard your hand, not just make an amorphous jump to game.

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Nov 23 2004, 03:32 PM, said:

2♠ is a big underbid. For a lot of good reasons, many are now treating the 1♠ rebid as a one round force (I'm coming around). 2♠ is almost a courtesy raise at this point.

Welcome to the dark side... yes 1♠ should be 1 round force and 2♠ should be a courtesy raise (hello xyz convention with soundish raise to two).....

But I assumed they were not playing xyz nor 1♠ as 1RF.... as so few have joined the dark side.... .er..... make that so many still bid "standard" (how come standard is so bad?).

ben

[flytoox]

is 3C forcing? 4D is a good choice. Or 3D cuebid. This hand is very good now, the bad news is that your hearts are likely to be wasteful cards.

[the hog]

Depends on how you play 2N. You have a great hand cf Ben's comments above. If you can be sure that 3C is forcing, that would be my bid, else 4D.

[HeartA]

luke warm, on Nov 23 2004, 01:27 PM, said:

what's your nt range? i think partner is worried that you supported spades with 3 (taking a preference)... but he has a decent hand else he'd pass 2s on the supposed 4/3 fit... so i think he's 4234 and about 14 hcp (if 15-17 nt)... i think i'd go to 4s because my hand is way better than the bidding so far has shown... as a matter of fact, it has improved some

Luke,

You got exactly what I had: ♠AK9x, ♥Tx, ♦KJx, ♣KT9x. Afraid of 3 support was exactly my concern, I told my partner after we finished this hand. My partner bid 3NT with that holding. We were cold on 4S, but set by 2 tricks on 3NT. I told my partner I would never bid 3NT with stiff on the only unbid suit. He argued that my 2NT meant weak in ♠ and AKJ in D and probably with 4=1=3=5 distribution.

[luke warm]

the question i answered concerned the bidding after opener's 2nt and what i thought it meant.. it has to mean something, and unlike ben i believe it does show a flattish hand unsuited for any other nt bid.. i'd have bypassed the spades, but that's just me (responder is strong enough to check back - actually he *has* to imo)

the big surprise on this auction is that you bid again after responder's 2s... i'd have been tempted to pass, counting on responder for 7, 8 points... as you can see, he's worth upwards of 13 with the spade fit... after your actual 1s bid, i'd have splintered because of the so-called 'rule of 26' which states that if hcp outside the splinter suit plus the splinterer's supposed 13 (hcp + distribution) equals 26, slam has a play.. as you can see, opener's hand went down by a king after the splinter, so 4s is about it

[inquiry]

The reason i think it is best not to be played as balanced, is balanced opposite either balanced (or weak) 2♠ is enough. The only reason game is good is 2♠ was monster underbid. 14hcp and balanced is not a reason to move over 2♠ here.... most especially if you play xyz convention. Add to this, i play 14-16 1NT,and partner will not be 14 balanced... or would have started 1nt.. so even 14 is out of the question.

[HeartA]

I was playing with a pick-up partner. Well, not really, we had played a few hundreds of boards. I kind of knew that he would under-bid a little for this kind of auction. So I decided to try again. We didn't have much convention.

[the hog]

"You got exactly what I had: ♠AK9x, ♥Tx, ♦KJx, ♣KT9x. Afraid of 3 support was exactly my concern,"

I would have passed a 2S response with that. You figure to have a good play. Anyway as others have pointed out, your partner's 2s bid is a massive underbid.

[cf_John0]

HeartA, on Nov 23 2004, 01:19 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

Partner opens 1♣:
North East South West
1♣ pass 1♥ pass
1♠ pass 2♠ pass
2NT pass ?

---

What kind of hands partner has when he bids 2NT? What would you bid as North?

IMO 2NT means 14~15 balanced hand as an option for his PD-3NT or 4S.Otherwise pass & 4S are better than 2NT.

[Fluffy]

Partner´s got a 4135 15-17 hand, we should had invited previous round to game, now partner invites... try a slam? 4♦ can´t hurt, but the 2NT bid suggests he will be having wasted values there so we will probably end on 4♠ anyway.

[aijianhua]

i will bid 3C. partner's 2NT should be a game try, and my hand is perfectly good now. 3C would not be passed by my partner, since we have found our spade fit. I will raise to 4S if partner bid 3S.