Julian Pottage
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Yes I think you would have five hearts for the 2NT rebid. The only time you would open 1H with a minimum opening would be with three four-card suits and a singleton club but the problem would not arise in that situation.
I have just had the chance to discuss this with my most regular partner. We have agreed that after a ‘disturbed’ response a 2NT rebid should show 12-13 points. This is on the basis that responder should have 10+ points for making a free bid that is higher than two of opener’s suit.
Unless there has been a change, Bernard advises opening the higher suit with two four-card suits, the only exception being to open 1H with 4-4 in the majors.
Most of my partners like to open the higher suit, so that is what I usually play. It does not matter a great deal so long as you and your partner agree what your method is.
Incidentally, if you are able to, you might like to change the topic title to something other than opening leads.
Some people do use 2NT as an enquiry after partner has made a weak jump overcall. Playing the same treatment in similar situations helps players remember them.
Since the hand includes two tens, I cannot see why your partner would say the intermediate cards are poor. (Playing a weak NT and 4-card majors) I would definitely open 1S on the hand.
Your diamonds are good but the king-queen doubleton of hearts is not pulling full weight, so they cancel each other out. Mist people I know would open this hand non-vulnerable.
With the South hand I would either rebid 3D or 1NT – I would not want to jump all the way to 4D. However, once South does bid 4D North has a huge hand. North might have bid 1D with four diamonds and 6 points. the actual hand actually has 13 points and 5 good diamonds. With the North hand I would bid 4NT over 4D to check on key cards. Once South South shows 3 key cards i would continue with 5NT looking for a grand slam. Since South’s clubs are poor, and in particular are lacking the king, you should be able to stop out of a grand slam.
With 19 HCP, albeit 9 HCP in the short suits, North is rather strong for a simple overcall. If North starts with a double and South bids 3C (over 2H) or 4C (over 3H), North is very much thinking of a slam.
On your actual auction, perhaps if South had bid 3H to show a sound raise rather than 4C, which sounds a bit pre-emptive, North would have been brave enough to bid the slam.
As you say, a 4NT key card enquiry is of limited value with clubs as trumps. I play 1430 replies even with clubs as trumps (except if opener opened 3C) on the basis that nobody makes a slam try with 0 key cards and therefore the 1430 replies are safe.
If responder is a passed hand, you can still use Lebensohl if you wish. In this case direct bids are invitational while delayed bids (via 2NT) are purely competitive.
If you are playing a strong NT (or playing a strong NT in 3rd seat) then you would need Lebensohl even as a passed hand.
Pairs who play that a 1C opening is frequently a hand on which an Acol player would open a weak NT often use weak jump shifts. It is rare to use weak jump shifts in conjunction with Acol. If I am playing Acol, I either play strong jump shifts or mini splinters but not weak jump shifts. I doubt that Bernard plays weak jump shifts but am not 100% sure.
You would need to ask David Stevenson about whether weak jump shifts require an alert.
One thing I should add is that if you expect to be on lead you should try to work out what your lead is while the auction is still in progress.
No it does not still apply. Responder’s pass has already announced a weak hand so there is no need to use a convention to differentiate weak hands from strong ones.
I had to lead something – it is the rules of the game. Qx of trumps was rather unattractive because there are all sorts of holdings that would mean the lead loses a trick. Declarer has bid diamonds and dummy has shown something in diamonds too, so a diamond lead is not very attractive either. This leaves the two suits with an unsupported ace. If partner has a singleton heart and the opposing hearts are 3-3, leading the ace of hearts is going to mean giving partner two heart ruffs (assuming the CA is a reentry). This has the merit of simplicity. It is rather more likely, however, that the hearts are not like that. If declarer has the king, cashing the ace sets it up. If dummy has the king and declarer a singleton, cashing the ace sets up the king for a discard. Cashing one unsupported ace practically announces that you have a second ace, so if there is a guess in the club suit declarer would be bound to get it right after the HA lead. In the end I went for a low club lead. If partner has the queen, declarer may guess wrongly. If partner has the king, this could be an entry for leading a heart through declarer’s possible king there.
As it happened declarer had a singleton club and could have made the contract by putting up dummy’s king – but because I had led a low club smoothly declarer did not think I had the ace.
