Julian Pottage
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sorry that was a typo – 4D and 4H are cue bids agreeing spades.
After 1S-2C-3S, you can certainly play in 3NT and you can play in clubs too. Even if you decide to play 4C as a cue bid, a jump to 5C would definitely be to play.
On the rare occasions (an example of which you have given) that responder has a very shapely misfitting hand you might wish the unbid suits were not cue bids but the times when you wish to agree spades are far more frequent.
South took something of a chance passing 3NT doubled since there was no certainty of finding an entry to your hand. I would have retreated to 4C expecting North to bid 4D (I play 4D as asking for a singleton, which is why I do not bid 4D on the South hand).
If your agreement is that a 3Nt opening shows a solid minor with little outside then the North hand has no reason to remove 3NT doubled.
The hand on lead is never going to lead a trump against 6S from Qxx and if the lead is a low trump from Jx then you escape a trump loser.
If you do not intend to show the diamonds, there is a case for opening a Benjamin 2C on the North hand but if you do not have that option then the 1S-2C-3S start is fine. Knowing that North does not have four hearts and is likely to take 4H as a cue bid anyway, South continues with 4C. North then bids 4D to show something in diamonds and South 4H to show something in hearts. Whether North simply bids 4S over that or does something more encouraging is unclear.
Going back to your play in 6C, I think it is better to delay cashing the top spades until after you have drawn a couple of rounds of trumps. You do not want to allow someone with 10 x or two low clubs and a singleton spade to ruff a top spade.
Most people who have discussed the auction play that after 1S-2C-3S that 3NT and 4C are natural while 4D and 4H are cue bids agreeing hearts. Perhpas some play 4C as a cue bid also, though I would think everyone plays 3NT as natural. Many, however, will not have discussed it!
Without a trump lead 6S is a very good spot, likely to make unless one defender has a doubleton spade and a single club or Q-J-x-x of spades. Given that a trump is not a popular lead against a suit slam, I would be happy enough to be in it.
Agreed – a transfer followed by the auto (self agreeing) splinter of 4C is the solution here. South has 12 points outside clubs and could hardly have a better hand in context. Depending upon whether you cue bid first round controls first or not, South either cue bids 4H and follows with 5D or bids 4D and follows with 5H. Either way North should get the message that South has AK K or AK A in the red suits and bid 6S.
It is normal to play 1D-1H-2NT-3D as game forcing. With a weak hand responder has to pass 2NT (unless you are playing a convention popular in America called the Wolff sign off but 3D would still be forcing).
Playing inverted raises I would respond 3C. This is much better at keeping the opponents out than 1D would.
With regard to the response, if you are not playing inverted raises you are a bit stuck. You could bid 3NT and hope partner does not put down a small singleton spade. As already mentioned, you do have at least a partial spade stopper. I would fancy 3Nt less with three small spades.
if you do not fancy 3Nt then on the basis that it is better to lie about a minor than a major, you could respond 2C. This is not going to solve all your problems, however. If partner rebids 2D, what do you rebid? 3NT would still be risky and now with an increased chance of a spade lead. You would rebid 2H, which is a wonderful description of your non-existent 5-card club suit and non-existent 4-card heart suit!
Perhaps, as the shape is 4333 and you have no tens, you could downgrade the hand to a limit raise initially.
It does seem to be a strange use of a 2NT response. I wonder what 2C and 3C would have meant in their system.
Over here it is quite common to play 2C as forcing for one round, at least invitational values. A weaker responding bid can then bid 3C.
The Americans often play cross cross raises: 1C-2D as a club raise (and 1D-3C as a diamond raise), which again means you have a bid available to cover game forcing hands with support.
If your opponents play an inefficient system that means the weak hand declares NT contracts it should be to your advantage, even if not on this particular occasion.
If you are playing a weak no-trump throughout then in first or second seat you open 1NT. If you do not like opening 1NT with 12 points at unfavourable vulnerability, you should switch to playing a variable or strong NT. You cannot open 1D in first or second seat because you would have no sensible rebid.
In third seat it is different. Then a 1D opening bid is fine – you do not need to have a rebid if your hand strength is such that you envisage making only a part score facing a passed hand – and if LHO declares a major-suit contract you would be happy to have a diamond lead.
The North hand is unusually good for a weak two and I do not think South should be looking for game. If anyone should bid differently it should be North by opening 1S – the honours together and in the long suits make the hand worth rather more than a typical 9-point hand with a 6-card suit. Non-vulnerable I would definitely open 1S rather than 2S with the North hand.
With 15 points and tremendous shape, responder’s 4S rebid is hugely conservative. I cannot imagine stopping out of slam facing a strong no-trump with this hand and I would want to take this slowly looking for a grand slam. Since partner’s diamond holding is likely to be the key to a grand slam i would bid 3D over 2S. Being a new suit at the three level by an unlimited hand this is 100% forcing.
By my calculations you did have 10 points in high cards (QJ = 3, KJ =4, K=3) and in any case with a six-card suit you do not need 10 points. After your 2D response, opener’s 2H is forcing, so you rebid 2NT. How the auction goes after that depends upon whether you play 3H at opener’s third turn as forcing. If you play 3H as forcing, opener bids that and you raise to game. Most pairs probably play 3H as non-forcing, in which case opener bids 3C (fourth suit) and you bid 3H, which opener raises to game.
In principle I agree with you, though a hand with 14 points and a 6-card suit hardly has no interest in game facing a passed hand. You need to imagine what you would do if you opened 1 of your long suit and partner gave a jump raise. If you would go on to game then your hand is too good for a fourth seat weak two opening.
