Julian Pottage
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
If you have four key cards and partner shows one, then that one must indeed be the one you are missing. A 4NT enquiry, however, would not discover whether partner has the king or a singleton.
Yes I was thinking the same thing – a typical 17 point hand would not be good enough to be thinking of a slam facing a limit raise.
You are right – responder does not have to bid game on any hand with a heart control – exercising judgement is allowable.
If opener is so strong he wants to insist on a slam facing a heart control, he goes beyond game himself. Suppose this is is hand:
A 10 8 6 5 4 3 2
Q 7
Void
A K J
Opener would bid 5C (or 5D or 5S), basically anything other than a 4S sign off!
With only 4 high card points it is usual to pass partner’s one-level opening bid. As you rightly say, you can only really count the distribution points in support of diamonds so a 1S response is a clear overbid but you could consider a raise to 2D. If partner rebids 3NT or even 2NT, however, how happy will you be about your 2D raise?
It is important to know what your partnership methods are in this situation. In the absence of prior discussion, redouble shows a good hand and bids are natural (though sometimes you can bid a low ranking suit planning to redouble for rescue later.) If you have agreed that redouble shows a single-suited hand and that bidding a suit shows that suit and a higher-ranking suit then you should bid accordingly. With that escape method, the only awkward shape is 4333, when you probably do best to take the medicine in 1NT doubled.
Your logic is correct – by bidding 4C and then 4S you are indicating possible slam interest and implying that you want to hear of a heart control.
At most vulnerabilities you should pass if you have no five-card or longer suit – there is no guarantee of finding a better spot and if you do not a fit you could go several down, possibly doubled – and sometimes partner has 7 tricks against 1NT doubled with little or no help from you. If you are non vulnerable and the opponents are vulnerable, you might try escaping to a 4-card suit on the basis that if the opponents do not double you can afford to go as many as three down and still lose than 180.
If you have a doubleton honour, you may need to play the honour on the first round to avoid blocking the suit. If you have a 3-card suit with an honour, you would simply encourage. The only time you unblock from three to an honour is if you have agreed that the lead of a particular honour requires an unblock. With my regular partner I play that the lead of the king against a no-trump contract demands an unblock or count signal – you need to have a very good suit to be making such a lead. If you do have A-K-J-10 or K-Q-10-9, you are happy to have partner unblock. With a weaker holding we lead the ace or queen.
Agree the hand Brian quotes is too weak for a reverse but I would still open the longest suit. The suit quality is also a factor. If LHO is going to declare a spade contract, I would like a diamond lead.
Not sure I can tell you what the correct responses are, only what I play. I play that a suit at the two level shows at least a 5-card suit headed by at least 2 of the top 3 honours; a suit at the three level shows at least a 6-card suit headed by at least 2 of the top 3 honours. Most hands therefore make the negative/waiting bid of 2D in response to 2C and 2H in response to 2D.
Using a cue bid to show a balanced 16-18 lacking a stopper would be most unwise, if that is what you are asking about. If that really is what a teacher advised, the teacher concerned needs to go on a refresher course! If partner lacks a stopper, you are up at quite a high level with nowhere sensible to play.
What you play sounds sensible and yes a 3D cue bid to show long clubs makes sense – you could jump to 4D with both majors.
Please address questions about alerting to David Stevenson. You might like to include something about roughly where you live because I think the answer varies in different parts of the UK.
You can bid 3D fourth suit forcing first and then support partner later. Partner should work out that with a weaker hand you would simply have bid game and therefore that you have slam interest. I agree it is not prefect and this is the sort of hand that fits well with the American style two-over-one game force.
I am not quite sure of the connection between the diagram and your question. North has a textbook shape for a takeout double.
David Bahkshi probably plays a convention called Leaping Michaels, whereby by a jump to 4 of a minor shows that minor and the unbid major. Since those jumps cater for two-suited hands, a cue bid is available to show a long suit without a stopper in opener’s suit.
If like most people you are not playing Leaping Michaels then you will probably be playing a cue bid as the other major plus and unspecified minor i.e. the same as a cue bid over a one level opening, just a level higher. If you have a long minor, you can try a simple overcall in the suit and hope that partner is strong enough to bid 3NT – somehimes you will miss game but opposing pre-empts are there to make life difficult for you..
