Julian Pottage
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Please could you address your question to David Stevenson as he deals with questions about what is legal.
If you play a 4D opening as a strong 4S opening, you could do that and then cue bid 5C over partner’s expected 4S sign off.
The traditional requirement is a balanced hand of 23+ points or a powerful game going hand with 5 quick tricks. If you are playing three weak twos, which means 2C is your only strong opening, you might shade the requirements slightly.
Yes on the first sequence opener passes (if too weak to raise) with a 5332 type and can show a second suit on other hands.
On the second sequence opener passes (if too weak to raise) on hands with 4-5 in the majors as well as on 5332 types.
Much of the time responder will raise 1M to 2M with 3-card support and a ruffing value, so responder tends to have 3-card support when responding 1NT only on 4333 types.
What did West overcall? If West bid 2H, you can bid 2NT even if that would be showing spade support in an uncontested auction. Some pairs playing 5-card majors use 2NT to show a 4-card raise even after intervention but in Acol it is normal for 2NT to be natural after an opposing overcall.
If you had an unusually cautious West who passed over 1S, North can respond 2D. You do not promise a 5-card suit if you respond two of a minor. It is only a two of a major response that promises five.
What you say sounds fine. There are two differences between an opening bid and an overcall and therefore two differences in what the cue bid shows.
(i) an opening bid (unless it is a major and you are playing 5-card majors) only promises at least 4 cards in the suit, so you need 4-card support for a cue bid raise whereas an overcall traditionally shows 5+cards so 3-card support is adequate.
(ii) a change of suit response to an opening bid by as unpassed hand is forcing, so the cue bid always shows support whereas traditionally a change of suit reply to a 1-level overcall is non-forcing, so occasionally the overcaller’s partner will (with a massive hand) need to cue bid without support.
On this occasion you would jump to 3H over 2D to convey the 5-6 shape (and good values). Normally you would bid 2H or 2S – the jump is unusual.
If you show the hand as single-suited, partner is unlikely ever to believe that you have five spades.
It is fine bidding 2C with unequal length because partner can bid 2D to ask you to show your better suit.
The initial 2C on the South hand was fine.
Sorry, I do not understand why 5S should go one down. The 1NT opening tells you that if anyone has all 3 missing spades it will be East so you tackle the suit by leading the SQ intend to run it. This means you cannot lose 2 spade tricks (unless East has psyched and opened 1NT with a spade void) and you will not lose a spade trick at all if West has the singleton jack.
The auction sounded perfect until your final 6C bid. Your partner did not raise clubs straight away so probably had only 3-card club support. You might have worked out that you would need a fair bit of luck to avoid losing the SA and one other trick.
Common advice is not to open with a pre-emptive bid when holding a 4-card major on the side. This does not mean it is a good idea when you have a 5-card major on the side!
The 2D opening is both an underbid and a misbid. North cannot possibly envisage a slam facing a normal weak two opening.
If I had been called away to the telephone and someone had opened a weak 2D for me on the South cards, I would not just raise 2S to 3S. I would make a 4C splinter, though even this would not enthuse North.
Is South opens 1D and raises North’s 1S response to 3S, North will envisage a slam.
The second hand is slightly easier than the first. The initial 2S overcall tells partner that you have a two-suited hand but gives little idea of the strength of the hand. You can double 4S knowing that partner will not remove the double to the wrong minor. In view of the extra shape you might choose to bid 4NT instead (I would not bid 5C because that would sound like the clubs are longer than the hearts).
Many people would not make a Michaels cue bid when the major is longer than the minor, so you certainly have company with the choice of the 1S overcall. Over 4H you do not want to bid 5C because that stops you from playing in 4S. You either bid a unilateral 4S or you double. Either could be wrong. If you double, you might have a 5-0-4-4 shape or 6-0-3-4/6-0-4-3 – partner will sometimes bid 5D.
on this particular hand starting with 2H with the intention of correcting partner’s reply to 3S is a reasonable approach. This not only conveys the sixth spade but also the extra values.
On neither hand I do not see how starting with a double would help. Partner would have little idea about your shape if you did that.
