Julian Pottage
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When the opponents double, it is usual to play different responses to when they do not double. I play that bidding a suit shows the suit bid and higher suit (I redouble forcing partner to bid 2C on hands with only one suit). I would therefore bid 2D. I am sure Bernard plays sort of wriggle too but do not know precisely what it is.
Incidentally you might like to edit your original post to give the opening hand 13 cards.
If you have AKQJxxx of spades and an ace outside then yes you have 8 playing tricks but you need 10 tricks for game in spades, so the chance 1S will get passed out when game is on is remote. One reason why you might open at the 2 level is if you fear missing game if you open at the one level. When you have only a bare 8 tricks this unlikely to be the case. If you wait for 8 and half or 9 tricks for a Benji 2C, that is likely to be a good idea.
Unless clubs are 5-1, hearts are 5-0 or spades are 7-1, you can count 13 tricks: four hearts, six clubs, two aces and a ruff. So long as trumps are 3-2, even a 7-1 spade split is not a problem.
Assuming a spade lead, I start with two rounds of trumps, queen and ace/king or vice versa. If they break 3-2, draw the third round. If not, you will have to risk a 7-1 spade split and take the SA and a spade ruff next. If South follows to the second spade, you have a trump entry to hand and can draw the last trump. I do not see a realistic way of trying to make with clubs 5-1.
Your auction seems reasonable to me. At teams or rubber bridge you want to be a in grand slam because it has a good chance of making. At matchpoints, bidding 6H and making all 13 tricks may be enough for a reasonable score. You would be surprised at how many pairs stop in game when a grand slam offers fair play.
1. I cannot think of any sequence in which I would play a jump as a cue bid. Jumps take up a lot of bidding room and therefore need to carry a specific message. I am sure that Bernard will cover splinters at some point because they are so useful when it comes to slam bidding. If you play in a tournament, everybody will be playing splinters in at least some sequences.
2. A transfer does not necessarily make the suit shown the agreed suit. Your side could have a only a 5-2 fit and wish to play in no-trumps. So in an uncontested auction 1NT-2D-2H-4NT, hearts is not the agreed suit; partner can pass 4NT. If you wanted to set hearts as the agreed suit, either you jump to 3H over 1NT or you transfer and then splinter.
You ask a similar question to Geoff Davies. Please can you clarify whether it is about the same hand?
The North hand does not fit hearts but does have a stopper in the other three suits. Clearly North should rebid 3NT. If wanting to play in 4H facing this North hand, South could simply have bid 4H rather than 3H.
With a hand suited for a heart slam, North would cue bid rather simply raise to 4H, so although the raise does indicate three hearts rather than two, it is only mildly encouraging – North would find another bid with 14 points or a good 13. Having said that, a third heart would improve slam chances a lot. There would then be a decent chance of playing the trumps for no loser plus the chance of getting the D3 away on a non-diamond lead.
My preferred way of bidding the South hand is to start with a 2D transfer to hearts and then on the next round make a 4D splinter. With the wasted DK facing the announced shortage and poor heart support, North then has an easy decision to sign off in 4H. The reason why the 4D rebid is available as a splinter is that the 3D would be forcing.
I think you mean to say that East overcalled in hearts rather than overbid – the latter means he bids more than his hand is worth. I assume he bid 2H rather than some sort of jump bid. Assuming he did bid 2H, it seems fine to compete to 2S. You would have reached 2S in an uncontested auction and with the points roughly 20-20 and a reasonable chance of having an 8-card spade fit you want to compete. Sometimes partner will hold a doubleton spade and three or four hearts and you would be better off defending but most of the time either 2H or 2S will be making. If partner has a doubleton heart and three spades, it might well be the case that 2H and 2S are both making.
It is important that you and your partner agree what you do after 2NT. Playing 4-card majors it is usual to play that 3NT shows a strong no-trump hand with only 4 spades, which describes the South hand well. Someone has suggested that North would pass 3NT. With a combined 28+ HCP you would certainly expect 3NT to make but the field (assuming matchpoints) will be playing spades rather than NT. If you can make as many tricks in NT as in spades then playing in NT is fine. As the cards lie, however, after a club lead you cannot afford to lose the lead to the DK as well as to the HA. You would need to run a computer simulation to find out whether you make an extra trick playing in spades more than half the time. My personal preference in a marginal case is to play with the field in the 4-4 fit.
With the club finesse wrong, you cannot make 3NT or 5C (indeed 3NT goes several down), so I do not understand why you were unhappy about playing in a club partial.
Playing Benji I recommend showing stoppers after 2C-2D-3C, so if South bids anything it would be 3H.
Although you have asked about the 3D bid, neither Bernard nor I recommend a 17-18 range for the 2NT rebid and it would be remiss if I failed to point this out. Playing the recommended 18-19 range, it will be comparatively rare that you wish to stop in a partscore. the simplest thing to do is to play that responder can pass 2NT but all continuations are forcing. Some people would play 3H (a rebid of responder’s suit) is non-forcing but a return to opener’s suit has always been forcing so long as I am aware.
If the responding hand is so weak that you would wish to consider a sign off in 3D, it might be better to bid 2D on the first round, a 4-card heart suit notwithstanding – this cuts out a 1S overcall by the fourth player and, if you play that you open the major on 4-4 hands, you will rarely miss a heart fit.
All actions have some flaw – the lack of a fourth spade counts against a double – the lack of a heart stopper is a serious flaw for 2NT. Following the two maxims ‘when in doubt support partner’ and ‘if you have to lie, do so about a minor’ I would bid 3D. If you play that you open the major on hands with 4-4, partner will often have five diamonds to open 1D.
In future, if you have a question that is specific to one of Bernard’s presentations, you would do best to raise the question during the presentation.
Sorry I have not actually seen the slides but it is usual to play 2-point ranges for higher level NT openings and rebids if you can. Playing Benjamin, you have a 2NT opening, 2C-2D-2NT, 2D-2H-2NT, 2C-2D-3NT and 2D-2H-3NT all available. With those 5 sequences you can cover 20-21, 22-23, 24-25, 26-27 and 28-29. So long as you and your partner play the same thing, you have some flexibility in the way you match the sequences to the ranges. I do not like playing a 24+ or 25+ ‘range’; how does partner know what is enough to look for a slam?
Sorry must have missed the original post. If partner has a diamond fit and your side has the necessary controls, 7D could be on. If not, 6NT looks a good bet. While the singleton HJ is a minus feature, with the two tens and decent 5-card suit, I would say the hand is too strong for an invitational 4NT. A spade contract is another possibility but you will never find out whether partner has the SJ so you are unlikely to be sure that spades is better than NT. Starting with Stayman (or 5-card Stayman if you play it) with a view to bidding diamonds naturally later seems a sensible approach. Once in a blue moon the HAK will be missing and the only makeable slam is 6D but you cannot cater for everything (I have assumed matchpoint scoring – playing teams you would not mind finishing in 6D).
