[pescetom]

MP

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An interesting hand to pick up near the end of the day.
Strong NT, 2/1.
1♦ was natural 4+ cards, your 2♣ was GF (does not deny primary support for diamonds, no inverted minors).
2♠ is natural and says nothing about extras.

In your preferred 2/1 style (even if the start above is not to your taste), what bids would you now consider as Responder and which do you choose?

[mike777]

3D

granted it helps if 1D shows 5 but understand that is far from standard, smile.
Perhaps with 4S and 4D and balanced, opener should rebid 2nt so now opener does promise 5D and 4S? I think so....

[Cyberyeti]

Does 2♣ show clubs or is it art GF ?

[pescetom]

 Cyberyeti, on 2026-June-19, 11:44, said:

Does 2♣ show clubs or is it art GF ?

It's semi-artificial. Might not be 5+ clubs with some reason, such as diamonds or balanced with no 4cM.

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2026-June-19, 12:26, said:

It's semi-artificial. Might not be 5+ clubs with some reason, such as diamonds or balanced with no 4cM.

In that case 3♣ and see if pd bids 3♦ which I can raise

[akwoo]

Does 2S promise an unbalanced hand (hence either 5 diamonds or some 4441)?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

does 2S at least show 5+ diamonds?
I guess with 4H and 4S, you would bid 2H, and with a bal. hand you
would either open or rebid NT.
Assuming we have a diamond fit, I show the fit.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[jillybean]

3♣ and here’s hoping we don’t go rusty waiting for the next bid.

[awm]

When I used to play 2/1, the (local) standard was that 2♣ was game forcing and hands with 5+♦ always rebid 2♦, so 2♠ would be 4144/4243/4342 (denying five diamonds or four hearts). This being the case, I'd rebid 3♣ (where I know we have a fit) and see what partner does.

[pescetom]

 akwoo, on 2026-June-19, 13:53, said:

Does 2S promise an unbalanced hand (hence either 5 diamonds or some 4441)?

Yes, it does.
So either 5+ diamonds or 4=1=4=4.

[pescetom]

 jillybean, on 2026-June-19, 14:17, said:

and here’s hoping we don’t go rusty waiting for the next bid.

Yes sorry but I had a game to run and am breaking in a new phone too
Now we have a club meeting to approve moving to a better location (after 25 years), hope everyone shows up despite the heat.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2026-June-20, 06:21, said:

Yes, it does.
So either 5+ diamonds or 4=1=4=4.

If you open one club with 4=1=4=4 it alleviates that concern.


Good luck with your meeting.

At our local club we have an unusual situation starting in about 6 months.
For over 20 years we took over a one story park district building to play bridge. We rent it. It is right next to a park and school.
The school was for young kids but now is being upgraded to a middle grade school.
In the lease the park district had the right to use part of the building as an after school site for students, however they never did. Now they want to start.

Not sure how this will be resolved.

[mikeh]

I don’t like the methods but all methods have hand types that can be awkward.

Over 2S we have options

2N looks weird but it has some upsides. The worst thing that could happen is being raised to 3N…not only because we may not enjoy this on a spade lead but also because we may be missing a great contract elsewhere…..picture QJxx xx AQJxx Kx…and yet 3N might be the best spot…picture AKQx Jx Qxxxx xx Where it shines is if partner is, say, 4=1=5=3 and can bid 3C.

3C shows the extra club but overstates club quality while making showing our great diamond support problematic. Also, 3C likely endplays partner in the auction. He can hardly be bidding 3N next with our heart holding so he’s likely to punt (in my partnership a bid of 4th suit at the 3 level in a gf auction is a punt, denying a stopper, but I doubt that most play that). Whether his punt is 3H or 3D, we can’t look for a diamond slam without going by 3N.

3D shows our trump support, and here the methods make this palatable since 2S promised 5D or 4144. He shouldn’t have 4144…he should raise clubs. So 3D looks pretty good…it forces, sets trump and while it consumes bidding space, compared to 2N or 3C, it seems to me that the help it provides partner outweighs the bidding space issue. Of course, psrtner may still have a difficult rebid and a 3S bid would present us with another issue.

Finally, in terms of choices I’d be considering, we could bid 3H. I dismiss this because it consumes a lot of space while not helping us determine strain or level.

So by what I hope is a familiar elimination of possibilities approach, I come to 3D.

I await partner’s bid…along with any information about what that says or doesn’t say about his hand.

[pescetom]

mikeh, on 2026-June-20, 11:01, said:

I don’t like the methods but all methods have hand types that can be awkward.

Over 2S we have options

2N looks weird but it has some upsides. The worst thing that could happen is being raised to 3N…not only because we may not enjoy this on a spade lead but also because we may be missing a great contract elsewhere…..picture QJxx xx AQJxx Kx…and yet 3N might be the best spot…picture AKQx Jx Qxxxx xx Where it shines is if partner is, say, 4=1=5=3 and can bid 3C.

3C shows the extra club but overstates club quality while making showing our great diamond support problematic. Also, 3C likely endplays partner in the auction. He can hardly be bidding 3N next with our heart holding so he’s likely to punt (in my partnership a bid of 4th suit at the 3 level in a gf auction is a punt, denying a stopper, but I doubt that most play that). Whether his punt is 3H or 3D, we can’t look for a diamond slam without going by 3N.

3D shows our trump support, and here the methods make this palatable since 2S promised 5D or 4144. He shouldn’t have 4144…he should raise clubs. So 3D looks pretty good…it forces, sets trump and while it consumes bidding space, compared to 2N or 3C, it seems to me that the help it provides partner outweighs the bidding space issue. Of course, psrtner may still have a difficult rebid and a 3S bid would present us with another issue.

Finally, in terms of choices I’d be considering, we could bid 3H. I dismiss this because it consumes a lot of space while not helping us determine strain or level.

So by what I hope is a familiar elimination of possibilities approach, I come to 3D.

I await partner’s bid…along with any information about what that says or doesn’t say about his hand.

Thanks, that is exactly what I was looking for from all here.
The auction was actually a roaring success, but I felt there was some rust in our agreements (or not) about Responder's 3 level rebids here.
I chose 3♣, more to win the post mortem because it was what partner might expect than because I was convinced it was better than 2N or 3♦.

Our system says that 2N does not promise a balanced hand and requests Opener to continue to describe his hand. Which is weird, but looked good to me... I can always pull 3N to 4♦ which must show something like this.

3♣ shows 6+ and invites Opener to do something intelligent. Somewhat unilateral in this case.

3♦ shows fit (usually 4+ for a minor) and fixes trumps. Which if the suit was a major would be definitive and invite a control-bid, but the system style after a 1/1 auction is that the minor suit fix is not yet definitive and 3M is either about stops or an advance control-bid (if Responder pulls 3N to the minor).

3♥ is a stopper ask (I can autofill the DavidKok comment).

[pescetom]

mike777, on 2026-June-20, 07:21, said:

Good luck with your meeting.

At our local club we have an unusual situation starting in about 6 months.
For over 20 years we took over a one story park district building to play bridge. We rent it. It is right next to a park and school.
The school was for young kids but now is being upgraded to a middle grade school.
In the lease the park district had the right to use part of the building as an after school site for students, however they never did. Now they want to start.

Not sure how this will be resolved.

The meeting went well, nobody fainted for either the heat or the lack of space in new building.
The latter is a risk, we can only fit 12 tables leaving a room for our blind player... but currently we are running 5-9 tables and only use all 14 once a year.
It's also a rather ugly building and not as close to the centre as before, and costs a little more.
But all the rest is equal or much better.
The building is modern brick and glass, elegant from the inside.
It was recently a private school and so has everything in order from WC for disabled right down to wired ethernet.
Easier and more economical to heat in winter or cool in summer.
We gain private parking for 12+ cars, no more arguing with neighbours.
We retain an ample garden with space for shaded outdoor play or a barbecue.

The meeting rightly exposed a few problems in the proposed contract, which will have to be sorted out.
But the transfer was approved

[mike777]

Indeed partner may have the problem now over 3D.

We may still end up in 3NT missing slam, not easy...
_---

Nice glad meeting went well.
Our space is quite big.
Easily room for 40 or 50 tables in main room

two extra rooms if ever needed, now used for lesson room and large snack room. We have a kitchen and several large storage areas.

No private parking, but parking shared with the park or on local tiny streets.

[pescetom]

mike777, on 2026-June-20, 13:11, said:

Indeed partner may have the problem now over 3D.

We may still end up in 3NT missing slam, not easy...

I don't see 3NT in the picture whatever happens... but we might end up in the wrong minor or the wrong level of slam.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2026-June-20, 15:01, said:

I don't see 3NT in the picture whatever happens... but we might end up in the wrong minor or the wrong level of slam.

What will partner bid over 3D?

I thought my 3D bid was🙂‍↔️ easy
My rebid may be tough..