Brian Davies
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In each case you can expect North to have exactly four spades.
No more clues. You will have to choose your own lead!! 🙂
It is more usual to use 2D as a negative rather than a relay. But even if you agree to play it as a negative, there are some strong hands where you will be better advised to bid 2H initially. A positive should show a good suit and it will usually work better to allow partner to show his/her suit if you have a good hand, but poor suit. The good news is that 2D is forcing to game, so you can afford to take things more slowly.
There is a Contact Us option under the Help menu.
But an email to info@fourmstaging.duqakibfdx.cloudpages.xyz gets to Bernard.
South holds:
AJ82
Q108
A10752
K
The hand has 14 High Card Points, including a singleton king – not enough to make a reverse bid.
Hi Alan,
Did you see this sequence discussed in this morning’s seminar? Bernard gave an example of the 2NT bid and also an example of weak take-out double:
I agree with both of these two examples.
I also like to compete with a double on two-suited hands such as:
â™ 42
♥ K754
♦ K8
♣ AJ932
This is why I like a 2NT response to this double to be “scrambling” and asking us which minor we hold. Bernard didn’t mention this in the seminar, but I would be interested in his thoughts.
Hi Keith, it is an interesting choice of words: “to punish them”! Our team-mates play a mini no trump and they love it when their opponents try to punish them by reducing the requirements for a penalty double. This seems like a natural change but it makes it more difficult for partner to know whether to sit the double holding (say) a five-count.
Their advice is to bid naturally, keep the double up to strength and hope to profit from the other weaknesses, created in the system. For example, how do they show a balanced hand in the 13-19 range? The 1NT and 2NT rebids often have to do a lot of work.
As Julian says, the major disadvantage is that responder cannot investigate alternative game contracts.
But skipping at least two complete rounds of bidding also hinders slam bidding. One of the fundamental principles of bidding is that you should conserve bidding space on strong hands to allow the partnership to communicate details of the hand shape, strength and texture.
Opener knows little about responder’s hand except that their are six or more points and at least four cards in the suit bid. But responder might have a hand that is potentially interested in slam.
Colin, both of these auctions work! Auction (a) is unique, but for auction (b), you could also have North opening 3S and West over-calling 4S, doubled of course.
I love this hand. Both sides can make three spades and both sides should sacrifice in four spades if the other gets to three spades first!
Yes, the convention cards seems to be listed in the Benjaminised Acol convention card (Help – Bidding System Help). This includes two-suited overcalls (Michaels / Unusual NT).
I don’t know how he plays it. I would expect that the recommendation are that most of the points are in the two suits and promises at least 5-5 distribution. But there are two approaches:
- 2NT shows a weak hand (say 6-10) or a strong hand (16+). Bid one of the suit if intermediate.
- 2NT is wide range (just like any other overcall).
Personally, I prefer the second approach and I think that this is becoming the more normal.
Interesting question. Some would play a double as penalties in this auction. After all, you can’t bid on the first round if you have spades and if you had a normal take-out double you might have doubled last time. But I don’t like looking for penalties at the two level when they have a fit.
So, I would play:
– 2NT = both minors (you don’t need this as natural bid)
– Dbl = two-suited take-out with hearts and a minor. In response, 2NT asks for the minor.
– 3C/3D/3H = natural, but poor quality suit (you would have already over-called with a good quality suit).
It is not possible for a computer programme to tell you the best play. But Double Dummy is an analysis of the best play if you can see all four hands and computer programmes can be written to tell you this. When we all used to go to clubs, we would get a print-out at the end of the night with the hand records if the club had access to a dealing machine. This would often tell you the optimum number of tricks playing Double Dummy. The Double Dummy feature on BBO tells also you the optimum number of tricks if able to see all for hands (see Sean’s comment above). But because you can scroll through the play, you can see how the Optimum number of tricks changes as you move play through the hand. For instance the Show Double Dummy feature may suggest that one over-trick can be made at the start of the hand, but this changes to two over-tricks at trick seven, you can establish that a defender played a card that was not optimum at that trick.
Double Dummy solutions should carry a Big Red Health Warning. The problem with any Double Dummy solution is that it assumes that you can see all four hands. Playing Double Dummy, you always take the finesses that succeed and avoid the finesses that don’t work. So if you hold a singleton king and Right Hand Opponent holds a suit headed by the Ace-Queen, the Double Dummy software will “know” to play the ace and drop the king rather than finessing! I often see Double Dummy software misused by players at the end of the hand who say “It says here that you should have made eleven tricks”.
But as long as you understand the limitations, Double Dummy software can be a useful analysis tool.
Hi Julian, I have considered playing a strong NT in third seat. Would this be something that you would recommend? What would be the knock-on effects on the rest of the system?
