Julian Pottage
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This is a clear-cut 1S overcall whatever the vulnerability and scoring method. When you have a six-card suit of any quality and opening values you should be in the bidding. A distant second choice (because partner is a passed hand) and is a 2S weak jump overcall. I would not consider passing.
The vulnerability can be a factor with a weaker hand – please see the query posted by Alison Collins entitled ‘responding to a takeout double’. The hand there I would have overcalled 1S non-vulnerable but not when vulnerable.
Sure I would double on the North hand – while yes the unguarded honours are a flaw you do have a good lead and with 17 HCP you are not completely minimum. Playing Multi Landy you do have the option to bid 2D to show a single suited hand with the intention of raising 2H to 3H. This is a reasonable option given the vulnerability, though of course 3H may be too high.
Gerber is just about the worst convention ever invented. There are so many other uses for a 4C bid that almost all players who use Gerber would be better off if they had never heard of it. Some people do still use 1NT-4C and 2NT-4C as asking for aces but the hands on which you would which to use the bid are extremely rare. If you are intending to finish in NT, you do want to be asking for aces because you need total high card points. If the partnership has all the aces and kings but nothing else, that is only 8 tricks.
If West has enough clubs to be calling the hand balanced and East has enough clubs to be jumping in the suit, it is rather unlikely that South has enough clubs to be wanting to make a penalty double. If you normally play doubles for penalty once you have doubled 1NT, perhaps you should make an exception when an opponent jumps.
As with most things in bidding, it does not matter very much whether you and your partner assign the best theoretical meaning to every call – the important thing is that both of you are assigning the same meaning.
When partner jumps to 3C that shows a long strongish club suit and your 1NT opening promises at least 2 clubs, so you will play either in clubs or no-trumps. The 3D rebid we discussed is merely showing a stopper rather than offering an alternative trump suit.
Some people play 2D-2H-2NT as 24+ but I think that is unplayable – NT bids should have a range rather than be unlimited. How is partner ever going to know what you need for a slam if the range is 24+?
The set of ranges I normally play are:
2C-2D-2NT 20-21
2NT 22-23
2D-2H-2NT 24-25
2C-2D-3NT 26-27
2D-2H-3NT 28-29
Your partner should only be introducing a minor on a very shapely hand or a hand with slam interest. The usual thing to do is to bid stoppers up the line and only rebid 3NT on a hand unsuited to a slam in partner’s suit. It sounds like you should bid 3D, though if you had something like A-K-J-x of spades and J-x-x of diamonds then you should bid 3S.
If partner had doubled in second seat then with a 5-card suit, 8 points (admittedly a slight flaw with the bare honour) and a singleton, the hand would clearly be worth a jump to 2S. Working on the basis of a transferred king, the hand is not worth a jump facing a protective double. If you bid 2S, partner would place you with more high cards and only four spades. It is not really possible to have a hand that is worth jumping to 2S with 5 spades that was not worth an overcall. You have not given the vulnerability but I assume you were vulnerable. You should have overcalled 1S if you were not vulnerable.
The reason for the traditional guideline to open 1H with a 4-4-4-1 shape is that opening 1D could lead to rebidding a 4-card suit and that opening 1NT would definitely mean bidding no-trumps with an unbalanced hand, two things traditionally regarded as a no-no. In theory if you open 1D and partner has a 3-3-1-6 9 count you could have the auction 1D-2C-2D-End and play with only 5 trumps between you – but I cannot remember the last time I saw a 1D-2C-2D-End auction.
yes I played the rebid 3NT as showing support for responder but I think one can improve on that.
What I do now is play the 2NT rebid as either (i) 5 of opener’s major (ii) 18-19 or (iii) support for responders’ suit. After the 2NT rebid, responder has a 3C enquiry. Opener can then bid 3D to show 18-19, rebid the major to show 5 or bid 3NT to show support for responder’s suit.
When I play Benji, 2C-2D-2NT shows 20-21 and a 2NT opening shows 22-23. Not sure whether it is better to play via 2C as stronger or weaker than a direct 2NT opener. As with so many bidding topics, the most important thing is that you play the ranges the same as your partner does.
This is more of a question for David Stevenson than for myself, though it is a matter of general bridge knowledge that third seat openings can be slightly different to first and second hand openings. Please could you repost your query in the ask David section.
