Julian Pottage
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Playing three weak twos, North does not have an easy opening bid. If North opens 1H, South responds 1S and North rebids 4H.
The play presents declarer with a decision if East leads a diamond. One line is to combine the chance of a singleton HK with the possibility that a defender has HKx and either 4 low spades or any 3 spades- you cash the HA and, if the HK does not fall, you play on spades. The alternative is simply to take the heart finesse. There is not a lot in it but I think the heart finesse is the better line.
Although you have asked about East’s action, you have stated an action for West that would not be my choice. With the West hand I would make a weak jump overcall of 2H rather than a simple 1H overcall. This shows a weak hand with (when vulnerable) a decent six-card suit. As it happens East has a decent hand but most the time jumping will obstruct the opponents.
Returning to the actual auction, I play that after a one-level overcall a change of suit reply is non-forcing but not a sign off. Perhaps with 17 points and a decent 5-card spade suit, East is too strong to make a non-forcing action, particularly as West is vulnerable. I would therefore start with 2D. 9 times out of 10 the cue bid would show 3-card support but here East does not wish to risk a non-forcing action. West would then bid 2H and East could continue with 2S.
If you make an unassuming cue bid, this is a particular type of cue bid that shows support but does not say anything about your holding in the opposing suit. This is where the name ‘unassuming’ comes from.
If you bid the opposing suit in a way that does not show support and the cue bid is below 3NT then if the opponents have bid only one suit it asks for a stopper while if the opponents have bid two suits it shows a stopper.
A raise of 3C to 4C should surely be forcing. You can then have a cue bidding exchange at the four level, which will confirm that between you the partnership has all suits covered. If you can then find out via a key card enquiry that the opening hand has 4 key cards and the DK, you would be able to count 13 tricks (1S, 3H, 3D, 6C).
Although it could be wrong with only Jx in hearts, I would bid the opening hand as balanced 23 points, in which case again it would be clear to reach of a slam. Indeed with 14 points opposite you would be envisaging 37 combined and, depending upon whether opener has shown 22-23 or 23-24, you would be either inviting 7NT (via 5NT) or simply bidding it.
Souths’ quantitative raise is a serious underbid. I would be thinking of a grand slam with the South hand, not simply inviting a small slam. It looks you have 9 tricks (the 2NT opener is heavy favourite to hold the HK). If partner has both black aces as well as the HK, that accounts for only 11 of North’s advertised 20 points but gives you 11 top tricks. You would expect North’s other 9 points to produce a couple more tricks.
If you happen to play 2NT-4C as asking for aces, that is a reasonable thing to do. I play 2NT-4C, which would fit the bill too.
I do not think running all your trumps is sensible unless you are actually in a grand slam.
In the diagram Brian Davies has included, the squeeze only works because West has four hearts, the CK and the DKQ10. If East had the D10, West could beat you by discarding a spade on the last club – the gain of one club trick would not help in South is squeezed first on the second round of clubs. If hearts are 4-1 and the CK was in the other hand, you would be going down in stone cold 6S.
Unless diamonds are 8-0, you can be certain of 12 tricks. You draw trumps and cash a top heart from hand. Even if the hearts are 5-0 and dummy is now out of trumps, you lose only a heart trick.
If you are playing matchpoints, of course you are interested in trying to make all 13 tricks.
You draw two rounds of trumps. If they split 2-2, you cash a top heart and unless West shows out you are sure of 13 tricks, ruffing the fourth round of hearts in dummy if need be.
If trumps are 3-1, dealing with 4-1 heart break is less straightforward. if one defender has a singleton in each major, you could leave the last trump out and take a fourth round heart ruff safely. it is more likely, however, that the heart singleton is with the 3-card trump holding. If the jack of hearts is singleton either side, it is easy to make four heart tricks. You can also do it if West has a singleton nine.
When you open 1S and rebid 2S, you are quite likely to hold six spades because if you had a second suit to show you could show it without reversing. I would not describe K109875 as particularly strong. There could easily be three spade losers if partner has a singleton. If 4S was the right spot, it would be partner’s partner fault for not taking the auction more slowly. You really need seven spades or a strong six-card suit that might play for one loser facing a singleton to pull 3NT to 4S.
You start a table as usual for your friends. You then click on the blue icon with the three horizontal lines on it. Then select ‘Deal Source’ and select ‘a specific vugraph match from the archives’
You will then need to enter something in the text. I just tried ‘spring fours’ and a list of 7 sets came up.
Sally Brock is a big fan of playing 5-card majors with a weak NT and she has won several world championships, so it is not impossible to play. Just because you are playing 5-card majors, you do not have to open one of a major. If you do not fancy having to rebid the suit, you can open 1NT. You do not have to have six cards in the suit to rebid it – you just do not rebid five-card suits if you have a reasonable alternative. If your shape is 4513 and the bidding starts 1H-2D, you will have no choice but to rebid 2D if you are too weak to reverse, so you can sometimes rebid 2H with a 5332 type.
You have asked this question in a specific forum looking for an expert opinion. If you want to know how average players play it, you need to ask in the Bernard Magee Bridge Facebook group.
Anyway, I do not play 2NT as a raise to 3M or better in an uncontested auction but I do play it as that after an intervening takeout double, so can happily tell you what the bids mean in that context
1M – 2M = up to 8 points often with only 3-card support
1M – 3M = raise to 2.5M – the sort of hand that would be looking for game if partner had opened a strong NT – 8 maybe a good 7 to 9 points with 4-card support
1M – 4M = really shapely hand almost always with 5-card support but with too few high cards to bid 2NT or a splinter
The system of responses to 1m would not be vastly different, though a raise to 2m would more often include 4-card support and arise to 4m would be rarer.
If you are playing a 12-14 1NT and you have 15 points, you open one of a suit unless there is a very good reason not to. As Brian Davies has explained, having a 4333 shape is not itself a reason to open 1NT with 15 points. The hand I opened 1NT on recently with 15 points had several bad features – the four-card spade suit was headed by the seven and I had a king-queen doubleton holding in another suit.
North’s 1D opening and non-forcing 3D rebid does not do justice to the hand. With no heart stopper, opening 1D and rebidding 3NT does not appeal either.
If I was not playing Benjamin, I think I would open 2NT on the North hand, treating the hand as a balanced 20. Playing Benjamin I would open 2C. While it would be nice to have 9 tricks, the 3D rebid after 2C-2D is not forcing and there is no other good way to describe the hand.
If North opens 2C or 2NT, South will be much aware of the slam potential.
