Julian Pottage
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If you play ordinary Stayman in reply to a 2NT opening, the only very weak hand you can use Stayman with is a three-suited hand short in clubs – then you can pass whatever opener does. If you bid 3C and then continue bidding, you are showing definite interest in game and possibly in a slam. How else would you would bid a slightly better hand with five spades and four hearts? You cannot sensibly bid 3H (transfer) and then 4H because that rules out playing in 3NT if opener does not fit either major.
With this West hand I would make a 3H transfer showing spades and pass opener’s completion to 3S. The very friendly layout means you can make 4S but you would not want to be in it looking at just the East-West cards.
Firstly West should not double 1S. A double of a one-level suit opening bid is for takeout, indicating support for the other suits. Here West’s only four-card suit is spades. With this shape West should pass or, if strong enough, overcall 1NT. It is usual to play a range of 15-17 points for a 1NT overcall, so West is a bit weak for that.
I am happy with North’s 2C response because the hand is not strong enough to bid 2D and then 3C, so responding in the lower suit increases the chance of finding a fit.
After South rebids 2H, North should have rebid 2Nt rather than 3D. Fourth suit forcing at the three level creates a game force, so indicating 13+ points or maybe a good 12; the North hand is not worth that. In any case, you only use fourth suit forcing if you do not have a suitable natural bid available. Here North has the unbid suit (diamonds well held) and so should rebid 2NT.
After North bids 3D, this asks for further description. South should rebid 3H or maybe 4H over that. Bidding 3NT with a void in the effectively unbid diamonds suit (North’s 3D did not promise diamonds because it was the fourth suit) was a poor choice. I agree with your feeling uncomfortable about it – the power of the understatement!
Yes at the five level it is usual to show only a first-round control (unless the previous bidding means you have denied a first-round control).
There are two possible reasons why a player might cue bid at the five level rather than use 4NT.
(i) the hand is not quite strong enough to take control with 4NT
(ii) the hand contains a void.
South’s first two bids were absolutely fine as were North’s. The jump to 4H is where the auction went wrong, as I think you realise from your question.
An opener’s reverse after a two-level response creates a game force. It also shows at least five cards in the first suit and four in the second. After North bid 3C, South should have bid 3H to continue the description, showing the sixth heart. It would seem South either did not know 3H was forcing or did not trust North to know. The jump to 4H wasted a round of bidding, something you do not want to be doing with a good hand. You have suggested 3D (fourth suit) as an alternative but as the sixth heart is a convenient feature to show I do not see why you would bid 3D.
After 1H-2C-2S-3C-3H, North continues with 4C. South has now seen that North has bid clubs three times and wants to play in the suit even facing ten cards in the majors – North must have at least seven clubs to be doing this. In context, therefore. the singleton queen is useful support. South should thus make a 4D cue bid, agreeing clubs – it is fine to cue bid a second-round control below the level of 4NT. North can then check on key cards and the partnership is very well placed.
Playing transfers you could start with 3D to show 5+ hearts and then rebid 3S to show 4+spades. If South makes a 4C cue bid, you can then get very excited. I suspect South just bids 4H. Then you cue bid 5D and South, with fitting cards in both majors and first-round club control, can bid the slam.
You do not want to be a in a grand slam that depends on a finesse.
I am not sure you can reach 6C on these cards. Although North’s diamond values are waste paper, everything else fits very well and North is maximum.
If you play 1NT-3C as a mild slam try or better, South can do that. North has values in diamonds as well as in hearts, so might bid 3D over that, which would dampen South’s enthusiasm. If North bids 3H rather than 3D, South can predict little diamond wastage but North is likely to need all of the ace-king-queen of hearts to make slam good. QJxx AKxx xxx Qx would also produce a slam but that is perfectly cards.
One needs to take a philosophical approach and accept that one cannot bid every good slam without bidding too many poor ones.
David gives another good example. It is usual to play 1S-2S-2NT-3m and 1S-1NT-2NT-3m as sign offs but 1S-2S-2NT-3H and 1S-1NT-2NT-3H as forcing. The difference comes about because game in hearts requires only 10 tricks whereas game in a minor requires 11 tricks.
Using 3D and 4D both as transfers gives you two ways to show hearts and get to 4NT. One way (via 3D) is invitational and the other asks for key cards. Yes if you had no interest in slam you would pass 4H. The 4D transfer shows either no interest in a slam or a hand that wishes to ask for key cards.
If you let your opponents play in 1S, I can imagine that would not have given you a good score.
Although Jxxx is not a great stopper, I would have bid 1NT on the East hand immediately over 1H. 9-12 points is about the range for 1NT and the East hand is comfortably within that. I expect you would have bought the contract there. With the diamond finesse right, you have 7 top tricks and you might well get an 8th trick because South will have a discard to find on the second round of hearts.
Hands where the main suit is hearts do not fit well with a Benjamin 2D opening because 2D-2H-3H uses up a lot of space. So I agree with the 2C opening even playing Benjamin.
I strongly recommend playing 2C-2D-2H-3H as forcing (responder has to bid a 2NT negative over 2H with a weak hand). That would give you more space. Indeed I would be bidding 5C as an exclusion key card ask over 3H, planning to bid a grand slam if partner how one useful key card (partner excludes the CA from consideration) and the HQ.
On your actual auction are you saying that opener passed 4H? Passing 4H seems very cautious.
Assuming there is no heart loser (and partner has jump raised) the only likely losers are in diamonds. At worst partner has no diamond honour and you need a guess in the suit. Often partner will have something helpful that means you have no guess or perhaps LHO will lead the DA. Sometimes I suppose you will have a slow spade loser but you cannot legislate for that.
You start with a response of 2C – that is the easy part. I imagine South rebids 2NT. North can now count 9 running club tricks and can envisage a slam if South has the right cards. North might contemplate 4D as an exclusion key card ask – the meaning of this sort of bid is always clearer to the player who makes the bid than to partner! A simple jump to 4C setting the suit is a safer option. With only a singleton club South is likely to try to sign off in 4NT. North will probably pot 6C over that.
As the cards lie 7C is an excellent contract because South has fast winners to cover North’s spade – but not sure how you ever find that out.
At matchpoints you would not mind playing in spades, though even 6S could fail if spades split 4-1.
Some people (particularly our friends across the ‘pond’) play that 2NT-3D and 2NT-4D are both transfers to hearts. If you bid 3D and then raise 3H to 4H that is a slam try whereas an immediate 4D is not – and if you bid 3D followed by 4NT that is quantitative whereas if you bid 4D followed by 4NT that asks for key cards. Of course if you play 4D as a transfer, that makes it harder to show a slam try in diamonds. If I am playing 4D as a transfer, I also play 2NT-3S as either both minors or just diamonds (but I see you use 2NT-3S for another purpose).
My most regular partner and I have a conventional way to solve the problem you cite. After 2NT-3D-3H, 3S denies four spades while 3NT shows it. Responder thus has two ways of getting to most places, either bidding them directly over 3H or going via 3S. You and your partner then just to agree which way round the meanings apply.
If you and your partner do not wish to play either the 4D Texas transfer or the 3S puppet bid, you will have a fewer options. In the absence of agreement, 2NT-3D-3H-3S/4m/4NT are all natural – if you wish to try for a slam in hearts, you have to raise 3H to 5H.
Even if you do not want to change how you play hands with 5 or more hearts, I do recommend dropping the 3S response as showing 5-4 in the majors. After 2NT-3C, opener has two bids that deny a 5-card major, 3D and 3NT. I play that 3NT promises 3 spades, which means responder can use 3C on hands with 5-4 in the majors, leaving 3S free for hands with both minors.
If you are playing 1C-1D-1H-1S as showing four spades then yes logically 1C-1D-1H-1NT must show only three spades. Since you do not need to bid twice with a completely minimum response, it would show a decent 7 to a poor 10 (a good 10 jumps to 2NT).
It is a matter of partnership agreement whether 1C-1D-1H-1S is natural, and hence whether you need to jump to 2S to make a fourth-suit forcing bid. In the olden days almost everyone played 1S as fourth suit forcing but now it is common to play 1S as natural.
If 1S is fourth suit forcing in your methods, 2S would be whatever a jump in the fourth suit means in your methods (if you have discussed the situation, which most pairs will not have done).
I would be bidding these hands 1S-2S-2NT-4S and I suspect Bernard would too. Sometimes responder will have only 3 spades, so the opener does not want to commit to playing in spades. Admittedly the club holding is a flaw for a 2NT rebid but the 4333 shape suggests no-trumps. With 8 HCP and a doubleton, the responding hand is upper end for the raise to 2S and so accepts opener’s game try, choosing to play in spades when holding 4-card spade support and a ruffing value.
