Posted 2014-April-09, 06:51
Clearly the immediate problem is that your partnership agreed to play nmf w/o discussing its subtleties, and you got caught in this.
For me, the 3♣ bid is forcing. Obviously, for your partner, it wasn't.
I have thought the following general default is fairly practical: Second round jump rebids by responder, all of them [added: Other than a jump reverse, of course], are invitational. Going through an artificial bid and then bidding at the three level is forcing. Ok, there may be times when you want to change this default. But if you start with it then, when an undiscussed auction such as the one in the OP comes up, you know. In the OP, it is forcing.
I have a partner who likes to play 1♦-1♥-1NT-3♣ as weak, rather than invitational. I prefer invit, but with him I play weak. I won't go into the arguments for and against, my point is that we have agreed that this is an exception to the default. Which reminds me, I have to ask him about 1♦-1♠-1NT-3♥. With the majors it could be different. I think, again, this should be invitational. With the forcing hand you bid 2♣ before you bid 3♥. And with weak you just rebid 2♥. But I must ask him. And you and your partner must decide what your 3♣ bid is. Surely there must be a way to bid a strong hand with hearts and clubs, so what is it?
Ken
now what?