Posted 2007-August-10, 09:45
There is so much here about style, with lots of perspectives on the matter, I'm sure. A can of worms, if you will.
The One Heart Opening:
By my tastes, fine. Some would consider this too light for a 1♥ opening.
The Two Clubs Response:
There are many plausible alternatives here.
Some obviously would bid 1♠, as described. For my part, I'm not in that school, as I believe that this muddles and preempts the auctions that follow. When spades will offer a superior alternative strain, spades will be found when Opener rebids 2♠. But, this style of bidding spades first works decently and is a style.
My style is to bid 2♣, because I define 2♣ as a real suit or as a club fragment or better with heart support, a sort of advanced cue, if you will. I think that this works best in the long run, but others disagree.
A third reasonable style might be for 2NT to show GF and balanced, which is what you have, depending upon the strength promised.
A fourth style might even be a 3NT artificial response, if this hand type is conventionally included.
There might even be other styles. But, as I mentioned, I personally like 2♣.
The Two Diamonds Rebid:
This may seem obvious and needing no clarification. However, it is plausible to play that 2♦ is too rich, as I have played before that you would always rebid the suit if you do not have extras, regardless of shape; extras could be based upon shape, though. That did work well, if not ideally.
It is also plausible to play, as I now do, that 2♦ either shows a real suit or is an "anticipatory advanced cue" in case partner had initially bid 2♣ as an advanced cue. That may seem strange, but it does help a lot to enable setting hearts as trumps as low as possible, when that is the to-be-realized partnership goal. The cost is in unwinding some ambiguous auctions when that was not the goal, but my experience, different from others perhaps, is that this is an acceptable cost for the gains that develop.
The Two Heart Rebid:
As some have noted, there are even different styles here. For my part, I am in the school where 2♥ unambiguously agrees hearts. Some treat 2♥ as "probably" a fit but very plausibly a 2-card delayed raise on some waiting-appropriate hands. Either style has pros and cons.
The Rest of the Auction:
As can undoubtedly be seen, the rest of the auction after 2♥ will depend upon all of the stylistic choices leading up to that call, as well as all of the stylistic choices that follow this call. What you end up with, then, is a rather difficult set of three questions to answer. Each answer requires the person answering your questions to define his or her understanding as to each of the four first calls, and then express his or her agreements as to the style after that start.
There may well be some "standard schools" that can offer distinct solutions to the three questions. The Lawrence School surely has all four initial bids defined, as well as the remaining auction style. Surely the same can be said of the Hardy School. Which do you play, if either?
Maybe there are other schools here, like perhaps a Gitelman School. I myself have a completely different school of thought here, related but distinct.
Boy is it difficult to sit down with a stranger and agree to play "2/1 GF" without a lot of theory discussion, eh?
"Gibberish in, gibberish out. A trial judge, three sets of lawyers, and now three appellate judges cannot agree on what this law means. And we ask police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and citizens to enforce or abide by it? The legislature continues to write unreadable statutes. Gibberish should not be enforced as law."
-P.J. Painter.