[Apollo81]

♠93
♥K65
♦KJ5
♣AQ654

MPs, both vul

1♣-(1♠)-Dbl-(pass)-???


1NT, 2♣, or 2♥? Defend your choice.

[gwnn]

2♥, if I have solid agreements with my p. We can sort out if I have a 3- or 4-card suit later. I have the utmost respect for the Golden Rule.

2♣ with a pickup p or equivalent. Least likely to cause disasters.

1NT is out of the question, if p raises me to game and we go 3 off after an "inspired" (automatic) spade lead, I'll have explaining to do.

[mike777]

1) Ugg I guess I am forced to open another balanced 13 hcp hand with a pickup partner.
2) My first option was always 2clubs.....never 2H but now with Justin and Phil's posts in several threads I shall try nt.

[pclayton]

2C. I can live with 1N at MPs , but im trying to get to a plus position at IMPs. As far as the xx vs xxx argument, it seems more likely that LHO has the extra card instead of pard.

[mike777]

pclayton, on Mar 26 2007, 12:52 PM, said:

2C. I can live with 1N at MPs , but im trying to get to a plus position at IMPs. As far as the xx vs xxx argument, it seems more likely that LHO has the extra card instead of pard.

Great as soon as I have someone to blame for my bids....Phil hedges.

[pclayton]

mike777, on Mar 26 2007, 09:55 AM, said:

pclayton, on Mar 26 2007, 12:52 PM, said:

2C. I can live with 1N at MPs , but im trying to get to a plus position at IMPs. As far as the xx vs xxx argument, it seems more likely that LHO has the extra card instead of pard.

Great as soon as I have someone to blame for my bids....Phil hedges.

LOL Mike.

On the 2=2=4=5 hand where LHO opened 2♠, I have every reason to believe LHO doesn't have a solid suit, and doesn't have a great hand. Therefore, he may try to find his partner's source of tricks with a short suit lead.

On this hand, I have every reason to believe LHO has a good hand and wants to get his suit established, even if it means blowing a trick in spades to gain a tempo.

One can take a good thing too far, and I'm not convinced a stopperless 1N rebid at IMps is superior to rebidding this decent 5 card suit. There's little positional advantage to me declaring NT (AQTx in dummy would be nice with the lead coming around), and we can still get to 3N if pard has extra values. Pard will also upgrade a nice club holding, and we may get to 3N with less than the magical combined 26.

But its MPs, and I will stick to my original call of 1N. It does seem that clubs won't play 2 tricks better.

[awm]

I'll bid 2♥. Several reasons:

(1) With only two spades, the moysian is likely to play well. There is potential for a ruff in my hand. I could easily see 2♥ outscoring 1NT even if partner shows up with a strong spade holding.

(2) It's MPs, and 2♥ usually scores higher than 2♣.

(3) If partner has only four hearts and a game-going hand, he can easily bid notrump next; we have plenty of space to sort things out. It is quite possible that an eventual 3NT will play better from the side with the stopper (say partner has KJx, LHO has ATxxxx, and RHO Qx).

(4) With a less-than-invitational hand including strong spades and weak hearts I prefer a 1NT bid in this auction rather than a double. For example with AQxx Jxxx Qxx xx I would bid 1NT. I know some people disagree with this, but I prefer to make the most descriptive call on a hand worth one call, and to have my negative doubles promise either extras or something close to a "takeout double" shape.

(5) There are many hands, even hands with five hearts, where partner should pass a 2♣ rebid. For example with Jxxx AJxxx Qxx x I would expect a pass of 2♣. I'd need very strong spots to consider making a non-forcing 2♥ rebid with only five.

(6) Generally I play a style where raising partner's 4+ card suit on 3-card support is frequent and rebidding a 5-card suit is to be avoided. This means I play some 4-3 fits and "miss" some 5-2 fits, but more importantly it consistently keeps me out of 5-1 fits. The alternate style of "rarely raise on three, frequently rebid on five" avoids the 4-3 fits and finds the 5-2 fits but occasionally lands us in a 5-1 fit. Personally I feel that the 4-3/5-2 fit issue is a roughly even trade, but 5-1 fits usually don't play that well (unless the five-card suit is really robust)...

[pclayton]

awm, on Mar 26 2007, 10:48 AM, said:

I'll bid 2♥. Several reasons:

(1) With only two spades, the moysian is likely to play well. There is potential for a ruff in my hand. I could easily see 2♥ outscoring 1NT even if partner shows up with a strong spade holding.

(2) It's MPs, and 2♥ usually scores higher than 2♣.

(3) If partner has only four hearts and a game-going hand, he can easily bid notrump next; we have plenty of space to sort things out. It is quite possible that an eventual 3NT will play better from the side with the stopper (say partner has KJx, LHO has ATxxxx, and RHO Qx).

(4) With a less-than-invitational hand including strong spades and weak hearts I prefer a 1NT bid in this auction rather than a double. For example with AQxx Jxxx Qxx xx I would bid 1NT. I know some people disagree with this, but I prefer to make the most descriptive call on a hand worth one call, and to have my negative doubles promise either extras or something close to a "takeout double" shape.

(5) There are many hands, even hands with five hearts, where partner should pass a 2♣ rebid. For example with Jxxx AJxxx Qxx x I would expect a pass of 2♣. I'd need very strong spots to consider making a non-forcing 2♥ rebid with only five.

(6) Generally I play a style where raising partner's 4+ card suit on 3-card support is frequent and rebidding a 5-card suit is to be avoided. This means I play some 4-3 fits and "miss" some 5-2 fits, but more importantly it consistently keeps me out of 5-1 fits. The alternate style of "rarely raise on three, frequently rebid on five" avoids the 4-3 fits and finds the 5-2 fits but occasionally lands us in a 5-1 fit. Personally I feel that the 4-3/5-2 fit issue is a roughly even trade, but 5-1 fits usually don't play that well (unless the five-card suit is really robust)...

If partner has 4 hearts and a game going hand, we'll have a tough time unraveling ourselves from the 4-3. Its possible pard may opt for 3N, but most of the time he'll just blast 4♥.

[awm]

pclayton, on Mar 26 2007, 01:55 PM, said:

If partner has 4 hearts and a game going hand, we'll have a tough time unraveling ourselves from the 4-3. Its possible pard may opt for 3N, but most of the time he'll just blast 4♥.

This is where style matters, and where your partners and mine differ.

After 1♣-Pass-1♥-Pass-2♥ I frequently end up in 3NT, because the raise to 2♥ is often on three cards and a balanced hand. On the negative double auction there is even more incentive to bid 2♥ on three, because there are more hands with no easy call. We will easily scramble to 3NT when it is right.

On the other hand, my partners feel fairly free to raise my 2♣ rebids to 3♣ on honor-doubleton with an invitational hand, or to raise my 1NT rebid to 3NT with game values and no spade stopper of their own. Presumably your partners would be more cautious in these auctions?

[Halo]

2♣

I chose to open 1C (maybe had to) so now I will show my hand such as it is.

[pclayton]

awm, on Mar 26 2007, 11:03 AM, said:

pclayton, on Mar 26 2007, 01:55 PM, said:

If partner has 4 hearts and a game going hand, we'll have a tough time unraveling ourselves from the 4-3. Its possible pard may opt for 3N, but most of the time he'll just blast 4♥.

This is where style matters, and where your partners and mine differ.

After 1♣-Pass-1♥-Pass-2♥ I frequently end up in 3NT, because the raise to 2♥ is often on three cards and a balanced hand. On the negative double auction there is even more incentive to bid 2♥ on three, because there are more hands with no easy call. We will easily scramble to 3NT when it is right.

On the other hand, my partners feel fairly free to raise my 2♣ rebids to 3♣ on honor-doubleton with an invitational hand, or to raise my 1NT rebid to 3NT with game values and no spade stopper of their own. Presumably your partners would be more cautious in these auctions?

I think 1x - 1y - 2y is a different beast than the actual auction. I will also frequently have 3 trump for a raise to 2 of a major as well. However, most pairs play some kind of 2♠ / 2N checkback to determine the strength and # of trump, and responder holding only 4 trump will not auto blast into game as a result.

Which brings up an interesting concept:

1 minor (1♠) - dbl - (pass)
2♥ - (pass) - 2N

Could this not be played the same way as 1x - 1y - 2y - 2N?

[pclayton]

awm, on Mar 26 2007, 11:03 AM, said:

On the other hand, my partners feel fairly free to raise my 2♣ rebids to 3♣ on honor-doubleton with an invitational hand, or to raise my 1NT rebid to 3NT with game values and no spade stopper of their own. Presumably your partners would be more cautious in these auctions?

Well, there's an excellent chance pard has a spade stopper, and I will hear a 2N rebid with this type of hand. I suppose I pay off to something like: xxxx, Axxx, KJ, Kx and land in 3♣

[pbleighton]

2C. 1NT and 2H are both reasonable,cbut I prefer the rebid least likely to get us in trouble.

Peter

[whereagles]

1NT. I stopped worrying about stoppers a long time ago... Pard can always bid 2♠ if he's uncomfortable about NT.

[Apollo81]

This is a repost from the Washington Bridge League

http://www.districts...07/Sol0701.aspx

[han]

1NT, can live with 2C, can't live with 2H.

[Free]

I prefer 1NT for various reasons. Partner tells me to describe my hand, well, I'm balanced... If he needs a stopper he can just ask for it, especially at this low level. So I usually agree with my partners that 1NT in this sequence doesn't promise a stopper, which helps a lot in avoiding problems.

[Apollo81]

I would bid 2♥. This will never be a poor 5-1 fit as clubs might be, and hearts outscores clubs. I don't mind a stopperless 1NT, (which is my 2nd choice) but I think that hearts will outscore notrump if partner can't act. I have had decent results with this bid, not that this means anything.

[Joe de Balliol]

Jlall, on Mar 26 2007, 12:16 PM, said:

1N, was just having a conversation with someone about this auction, I will 100 % rebid 1N with xx or xxx, but prefer xx. I'm sure this will be unpopular but RHO didn't raise spades, LHO may not lead spades, and even if they do run spades I'm only in 1 (of course it's MP so that may be a mild disaster). In my experience partner will very very often have a stopper here. This choice also makes it easier for him to correct to hearts than if I bid 2C. I would expect partner to make a neg X with a hand like AQxx Jxxx xxx Kx or similar. Despite the probable unpopularity of this bid I really think it's percentage and makes subsequent bidding easy as well.

I'll agree with his.