Julian Pottage
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The Americans seem to manage with just one artificial strong opening (2C). They normally play a weak two in three suits. Although I play 2D as a weak natural opening with one partner, it does not tend to inconvenience the opponents much unless partner can raise because they can show either major at the two level. The people who ditch the second strong opening in Benji tend to those who want to use 2D for some creative or destructive purpose. With my most regular partner I play Benji so you do not need to be a in a hurry to ditch it!
If you bid your own suit again, you should normally have six cards in the suit. If you rebid 1NT, that shows 17-19. If you are short in the overcaller’s suit, you usually double as this offers most flexibility, including the possibility that partner wishes to play for penalties. You can bid a second suit with only four cards, though as you have the option to double, you would only introduce a second suit with four cards if you are short in the other unbid suit. If you have a minimum opener with some length in the overcaller’s suit, you can pass.
A 2C cue bid with only 6 HCP seems a bit rich to me. Yes it does mean ‘you choose’. I do not mind 2S but think your partner should have bid 4H over 3NT.
If you were playing with Americans I can understand that most people would be playing a strong no-trump – but over here it that would be unusual
One needs to be careful about showing a void. If you can be sure partner can work out where the void is then it is fine to show it. For example if you have bid three suits or if you made a splinter bid then partner will know where the void is. If you have bid two suits and denied a control in another suit then again partner can work out where the void is.
There is no perfect answer for this hand. If I was vulnerable playing teams I would use Stayman because I would hate to go down in 1NT when 4S would be making. I would also be reasonably happy to pass a 2D reply and to bid 2NT (or 2S if it shows this hand) over 2H. Once in a blue moon partner is 3325 but often if partner has at most 3 hearts 1NT would not be a great spot.
You need to make a decision based on what you and your partner can remember which is the better option for you. If you play in a tournament, you will find that almost everyone plays replies to a 4NT enquiry that allows for the queen.
If there is confusion about what the trump suit is, this probably means someone is bidding 4NT too early in the auction. My usual agreement for when the partnership has not agreed a suit is that the last bid suit counts as the trump suit except that if responder has made a strong jump shift response then responder’s suit counts as the trump suit.
With the 5-card suit I would be going on to 3NT.
If the lead is away from the ace, it does not matter whether you play the 9 or low from dummy. If the lead is from J-10-x-x then in theory you need to play the 9 from dummy but the player in third seat is most unlikely to play the 8 from A-8-x so in practice you do not really need to play the 9. The advantage of playing low is that the lead might be from J-8-7-x and if the lead is from J-8-x-x it is unlikely that the third hand would play the 7 from A-10-7.
Finding yourself conveniently in hand with the CQ, you lead a low diamond towards the queen. I assume from the fact that some pairs made 11 tricks that diamonds were 3-3 with the king where you want it.
With the North hand I would either respond 1S or, having responded 2C, rebid 3S. As you say, opener might be 44(32) so responder has to be the one to bid spades.
After the two-level response 15 points is the minimum for a reverse – but this hand has 8 points in the short suits, so the 2NT rebid seems more descriptive.
Change the South holdings in the pointed suits to AJ10x and xx then I would rebid 2S rather than 2NT (with no diamond cover).
I recommend playing a new suit by responder (1C-1H-2C-2D) as forcing; I think Bernard does too. If your partner does not need to jump, you have more room to explore. You would raise 2D to 3D and then partner bids 3H to shows the sixth heart, which you raise to 4H.
With a spade holding of Q-x facing A-x-x it is better for the player with the Q-x holding to be declarer in a no-trump contract, though of course on your actual auction partner did not need to have A-x-x.
Even with the trick gifted on the opening lead, making 2NT is not easy. If you can see all 4 hands, you cross to dummy with a diamond at trick two, play a club to the king and then duck a club. Eventually you can endplay West to lead into your queen-ten of clubs. It is unlikely you would find that line looking at only the NS hands.
There are a lots of different ranges possible for strong balanced hands if you have 2C and 2D both available as strong artificial opening bids. As far as possible you want the opening bid or the rebid to be 2NT rather than 3NT because there is so much more room to explore over 2NT than there is over 3NT.
If you can use Zoom then your computer must have a camera and microphone. You can test after you log on to RealBridge using the link the director gives you. You can in fact play on RealBridge without a camera or microphone, though you might feel rather cut off when the other players can see and hear each other if you cannot.
