Julian Pottage
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Playing a weak NT, your partner’s action of bidding 2C and rebidding 2H shows a weak hand with both majors and so seems fine to me. You should have passed 2H.
Please ignore the suggestion from one replier that your partner should have bid 2D and 2S to show 5-5 in the majors. For one thing that would be an overbid and for another that would show 4-5 in the majors rather than 5-5.
I play a 2S response as showing 2 of the top 3 spade honours and have no problem therefore with the 2D response.
Once your partner bids over 3D, I think the auction should be game forcing , though I suppose occasionally you might wish to stop in 4D if neither of you has a heart stopper. For next time you need to agree with your partner whether 3S should be game forcing – the golden rule here should be that if in doubt the bid is forcing.
Given that the hand is rather slammish, partner could have raised 3D to 4D rather than showing the spades. Then you cue bid 5C and again you reach 6D.
As it was, holding 13 points, including the ace-queen of hearts, which the lead would be coming up to, partner should have raised 5D to 6D.
Yes if I had something like A-Q-J-x in another suit and so wanted a switch then I might lead the 8 or 9 so that partner thinks I have a bad original suit. The questioner did not mention wanting a switch, so my initial answer was just about the normal card to lead from J-9-8-x.
With a void in clubs, the 2NT rebid is misleading. Since 3D, game forcing, would be an overbid, my choice would be 3H. I know that normally this would show six hearts but this hand does seem more suited for a suit contract.
I do not think you should be more inclined to bid over 2H if you are non-vulnerable. At matchpoints the vulnerability makes no difference on constructive auctions while at IMPs you should be more inclined to push for game when vulnerable.
With my favourite partner I play 1NT-3C as showing game values and a club shortage. I would do that if I could. Most partnerships do not play that convention, in which case a raise to 3NT is fine. If you play 1NT-3D as natural and not a slam try, you could try that and then if partner bids 3H to show a heart stopper you could bid 3S to show a spade stopper.
South’s 4H rebid is not a good choice. A 4C splinter showing a raise to 4H with a club shortage describes the hand better, though it would not have to be as good as this. North does not have an easy bid over 4C. Some of those club values will be wasted facing a shortage. That said, North does have enough values for an opening bid and so far has only one a one-level response. I would feel inclined to a white lie and cue bid 4D; normally Q-J would not be good enough but South has bid the suit. Once North shows any signs of slam interest, South will ensure the partnership gets there – where are the losers?
3C is a limit raise and is not forcing in any system that I know. With a stronger hand, responder either makes a jump raise to 4C, which would be forcing, or bids 2S, the fourth suit,which also is forcing.
I think you mean to ask whether to lead the 9 or the 2. Some people treat J-9-8-x as an interior sequence, and so would lead the 9, though the majority of players do not and so lead the 2. With most of my partners I lead the 2.
The answer Stewart Pye gives broadly covers it, though some play that in deciding whether to accept partner’s game suggestion you take into account whether you are maximum or minimum as well as what you hold in the trial bid suit.
The average hand has one ten, so if you have no tens or if you have more than one ten then a slight adjustment is in order. Yes a ten in combination with other honours tends to be more useful than a ten on its own. With the Q-J-10 combination you mention, you can be sure of establishing a trick even if you have to keep playing the suit from hand whereas with Q-J and no ten you might not make a trick if you have to attack the suit yourself.
19-20 sounds fine for 4NT. 21-22 is the range for 6NT. With 23-24, you want to be invite 7NT with 5NT. I agree with you about 25+ for 7NT. It is rare for the bids other than 4NT to come up!
4H sounds natural to me – as it is game, it is not forcing. 4C and 4D would be natural and forcing by an unpassed hand. By a passed hand 4C and 4C can hardly be natural but it is hard to see how a passed hand has enough for a slam try.
Although I do not currently play it with anyone, I like to play that a double of 1NT by a passed hand shows a 4-card major and a longer minor. This type of hand difficult to show by other means. If you are going to come in over 1NT, that is what i would do – but vulnerable discretion may be wiser.
If you were not vulnerable, you might reasonably open a weak 1NT on the hand. As you say you were vulnerable, I would pass. I agree that opening 1D and rebidding 2D is unattractive.
If responder’s suit is lower ranking than opener’s, it is usual to play a change of suit as forcing for one round. So you can get to play in 4H by bidding or 2S by passing (or possibly in 3H if LHO protects with 3D).
It is different if responder’s suit is higher ranking than opener’s (if the opening was 2H and responder had long spades). Then you can play a simple change of suit as non-forcing and a jump as forcing.
