[onoway]

Two hands both involving 1nt openings. Partners have played together on occassion, but not frequently and have no agreements.

Hand 1: bidding is 1nt Pass 2♣, X, pass pass ?

Responder holds: ♠KQ43 ♥Q62♦T953 ♣J2

~..~ ~..~ ~..~

Hand 2: Bidding goes: P 1nt P 2♦(transfer) Pass 2♥ pass 3♣ pass 4♣ pass ?

Responder holds: ♠J82♥J9752♦J♣AK62

The 3♣ bid was intended to pattern out the hand, not to indicate interest in slam.



The first hand, responder bid 2nt which opener raised to 3nt - 2
The second hand, responder bid 5♣ which opener raised to 6 - 1 (it was makeable if you saw all 4 hands and/or chose the right gambles).

[ArtK78]

onoway, on 2014-January-29, 10:45, said:

Hand 1: bidding is 1nt Pass 2♣, X, pass pass ?

Responder holds: ♠KQ43 ♥Q62♦T953 ♣J2

I would have passed 1NT. Having bid Stayman and arrived at this position, I would bid 2♦, which should be a 3-suited runout - the type of hand where you would pass any response to Stayman. Clearly, this hand is much stronger than the typical hand that passes a Stayman response, but you are in a terrible position. So I just try to play 2 of a suit and hope for the best.

I initially considered redouble as a runout call, but on reflection I decided that redouble should be to play. 2♣x is not game, and if you have a strong hand you have to have a way to show it and punish players who stick their necks out into potentially strong auctions when you can. If you pass with a strong hand, you may score up 2♣x - perhaps with an overtrick or two - and get a worse score than those in 3NT. So you need to keep the redouble available for penalties.

As for passing 2♣x or redoubling on this hand, I don't recommend it.

onoway, on 2014-January-29, 10:45, said:

Hand 2: Bidding goes: P 1nt P 2♦(transfer) Pass 2♥ pass 3♣ pass 4♣ pass ?

Responder holds: ♠J82♥J9752♦J♣AK62

The 3♣ bid was intended to pattern out the hand, not to indicate interest in slam.

First, you have to know what your partnership agreement is when you transfer and bid a new suit (I understand that you said this partnership does not have many agreements. Still...). This is a slam going sequence for me, so the hand provided is not good enough. Therefore, you have to choose another sequence. The most obvious is transfer to hearts followed by 3NT and hope that it is right.

Having gotten to 4♣, you are in a no-win position. I would have bid 5♣ and hoped that partner passed. But even if partner passes I suspect that 5♣ will be a poor score at matchpoints even if it makes exactly 5.

[aguahombre]

All of the above, except --on number two, even though we wouldn't have gotten to the point of 4♣, if we had...then our raise to 5C would knock off any slam intent and could not be raised to 6. We must be able to transfer and then bid a minor with merely G.F values unsuitable for NT. Opener will suspect the possibility of slam interest and proceed accordingly over 3m; but we must have a way to shut down.

[Zelandakh]

Partner should not have passed on Hand 1 without having some idea. If they had good clubs then they could have redoubled. I think XX from us now is re-Stayman and that this is clear.
Bidding 3♣ only to pattern out on Hand 2 was probably a mistake without agreements but nothing we can do about that now. Our most regressive step is to bid 5♣ and I cannot really see any alternative to that.
There seems to be a pattern developing here that both halves of this pair like to torture their partners. To have fine auctions you need some agreements and without those you are often best advised just to make the clearest bid you can even if that means taking a chance.

[mcphee]

On the first hand there is no reason to bid stayman really. The stayman bidder was hoping to hit a home run when partner bid spades? I would try 2D had I taken this action.

The second hand I agree with 3C which is game forcing, it does not show slam interest (although it may be) but is a search for the best game. Why should it be a slam move when you might be cold for 5C and 3N has zero play? If a system requires that 3C has to be a slam move after a major xfer I wish you good fortune with 5/5 9 counts. The responsibility of the opening hand is to bid the major with 3 cards, and generally cue bid with minor support with out passing 3N.

[helene_t]

Hand 1: agree with Art.

Hand 2: 3♣ doesn't show slam interest so partner would normally show values in diamonds or spades if he has a club fit. We can see in our own hand that he must have something in the pointed suits so his hand must be upgraded significantly when he decides to bypass 3NT, unless he has heart support but probably he would always bid 3♥ with heart support. TBH I would not have shown the club suit unless having the agreement that 3NT would show 5332. Now 4♥ could be a winner at matchpoints, the field will probably be in 3NT. But I think that goes too far with this suit. I will bid 5♣ and just hope that it is the only game that makes.

[gszes]

HAND 1

the unsupported Q/J drops the value of this hand below what is needed for a stayman bid. Passing

1n would have been best. Agree with ArtK78 now you have to bid 2d and hope.




HAND 2

Bidding is a practical exercise in determining the best contract. We have sufficient power to play

4h or 5c (if we can find a fit) and are very close to 3n. The method chosen transfer followed by 3c

was a good one but not just to pattern out. This type of bidding should be used to indicate a problem

with 3n and the ability to play 5 of a minor. Our short diamond is definitely a problem. It should be

openers responsibility to show STOPPERS for nt (majors NT then minors) not just raise clubs.

If opener cannot stop diamonds then 5c can be a reasonable alternative if opener can stop diamonds

then we should settle for 3n even if they cannot stop spades since 5c would become virtually impossible to make.