Julian Pottage
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In Acol jump preference to 3 of opener’s major is non-forcing so yes if you are strong you need either to bid game or bid something partner cannot pass (like 3D fourth suit-forcing).
Apologies yes misread – if partner has bid hearts then you do have support. Yes I too play 2Nt as a constructive 4-card raise – in fact I said on another post only a few days back.
At matchpoints the best card players tend to win; at teams, the best bidders tend to win. If your card play really is better than the room, you will do well in the same contract.
With one partner I play that responder can pass 2NT but if responder does not pass then the auction is game forcing. With another partner I play a convention popular in America, the Wolff sign off – responder bids 3C on weak hands (opener has to bid 3D) and anything other than 3C creates a game force.
You would only need to change the hand very slightly to make the 2C bid more attractive. If the spades were AJ or AQ doubleton and the hearts were 7532, you would not have any good bid.
With the East hand I would bid 1NT. J732 is not a great stopper but I would be reluctant to bid 2C without 3-card support if there is any sort of realistic alternative. Bernard and I both take the view that you want to avoid lying about your major-suit lengths when possible and here I do not see a good enough reason to indicate you have three spades when you don’t. Perhaps Bernard plays 2C slightly differently – suggest you follow his explanation carefully.
Agree the splinter is a fraction on the aggressive side. Whether you use the losing trick count or whether you count points (allowing 3 for the singleton), the hand does not seem quite strong enough to force to game. I expect that Bernard will explain why he has decided to upgrade the hand.
with the partner with whom I play Texas Transfers, we play 3S as either both minors or just diamonds. If you do not mind playing a more sophisticated form of Stayman, you can find major-suit fits when responder has 5 spades and 4 hearts in other ways. I usually play 2NT-3C-3D as showing either a 4-card major or a doubleton spade and 2NT-3C-3NT as denying a 4-card major but promising three spades.
The question about following the room is a good one. In this case both the shape and the spot cards are bad so I am willing to pass whether that means going against the room or not.
You and your partner were on the same wavelength and I applaud that but to me 4NT from you is not ‘going on’ it is ‘signing off’. I would cue bid 4S over 4D with your hand. Then, lacking a heart control and knowing that you bypassed 4H and so lack a heart control too, partner would be disappointed but would know to sign off in 5D.
Are you playing that you have to raise 4D to 5D if you do not wish to encourage a slam?
With 11 HCP and a 7-card suit, I would say that partner is too good for an invitational 4NT. Unless there is a suit uncontrolled or two key cards are missing, partner wants to play in a slam.
Since you have no tens or nines and the shape is the unproductive 4333 you can reasonably downgrade your hand. Bernard often suggests deducting a point for a 4333 shape. While I would not always do that, here the intermediates are poor as well as the shape.
open the longest suit. On a two-suited hand you often run out of trumps if you play in the wrong suit. 14 points in a 5-6 shape has a lot of playing strength and I would happily reverse on the next round if someone has bid spades.
You might not have misheard. Many bridge players today learnt the game 50+ years ago so anything that is different to how it was 50 years ago Bernard might describe as ‘new’
A lot of Acol players use the rule of 14 for the strength required for a two-level response: a 4-card suit and 10 points or a 5-card suit and 9 points.
A two-level change-of-suit response in a major promises a 5-card or longer suit but a 2-level response change-of-suit response in a minor will quite often be on a 4-card suit. As others have pointed out, on rare occasions a 2C response to a 1S opening might be on a 3433 shape. I would say that the change from the style you learnt came in the 1980s.
