[cencio]

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what hand may be ?

[pescetom]

cencio, on 2026-October-11, 10:31, said:

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what hand may be ?

The most likely explanation is XYZ where 2♣ is an artificial bid requesting or forcing 2♦ by partner, over which any bid is natural and invitational.
Or maybe the clubs are natural but forcing one round.

Why don't you just ask?

[apollo1201]

Could be like a new minor forcing, except that it is always 2C (to save space or other). You are of course entitled to ask.

[mike777]

Please remember the vast majority of the time don't ask during the bidding. Wait.

You don't want the opponents waking each other up

XYZ and NMF/check back get messed up all the time by the nonexpert.

[steve2005]

apollo1201, on 2026-October-11, 11:25, said:

Could be like a new minor forcing, except that it is always 2C (to save space or other). You are of course entitled to ask.

Play that with wife but called Checkback Stayman

[pescetom]

mike777, on 2026-October-11, 12:17, said:

Please remember the vast majority of the time don't ask during the bidding. Wait.

You don't want the opponents waking each other up

I am pretty sure he is talking about BBO, where asking does not wake partner or the other opponent up (otherwise he could have asked after the board and avoided posting here).

mike777, on 2026-October-11, 12:17, said:

XYZ and NMF/check back get messed up all the time by the nonexpert.

Never seen XYZ messed up by anyone in an uncontested auction, it's remarkably simple (unlike natural in the same situations). At worst they have failed to discuss when it is on in competition.

[jillybean]

Does anyone have a Convention Card or are they sitting on it.

[mike777]

pescetom, on 2026-October-11, 12:36, said:

I am pretty sure he is talking about BBO, where asking does not wake partner or the other opponent up (otherwise he could have asked after the board and avoided posting here).



Never seen XYZ messed up by anyone in an uncontested auction, it's remarkably simple (unlike natural in the same situations). At worst they have failed to discuss when it is on in competition.

My new partner a gold life master, did it the first three times it came up with us. very frustrating, Granted it was not in vanilla auctions but still.....

Perhaps worse for us as XYZ is the spine of the whole system...

[pescetom]

mike777, on 2026-October-11, 13:49, said:

My new partner a gold life master, did it the first three times it came up with us. very frustrating, Granted it was not in vanilla auctions but still.....

Perhaps worse for us as XYZ is the spine of the whole system...

My partners lack either mastership or the grandiose US titles, probably both... but the few misunderstandings I recall were in competition.
It is physiological that partner new to XYZ will forget it the first few times... if you are ethical enough to ignore the missing alert without screens, then write the consequences off to startup.

[cencio]

the other hand

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[pescetom]

As we imagined it looks to be some form of check back (not XYZ in this case), probing for three card spades or a buried red suit before deciding the contract.