Julian Pottage
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Your 2S response was a bit pushy with only 8 points. Bernard usually says you need 10 points for bidding a new suit at the two level and while I generally feel comfortable in doing so with 9 (I play more teams than matchpoints), 8 is a stretch even for me. Your 2S response should have worked well as it happens because your partner should have raised you. You promise a 5-card a longer suit when you introduce a major at the 2 level; with three-card spade support and no heart stopper, your partner should have raised. Perhaps she did not realise that you were showing five spades.
If you have a doubleton honour, you risk blocking the suit if you retain the honour. With a three-card or longer holding, you do not need to rush into playing a single honour – you just play whatever in your methods is an encouraging signal (the higher of the two small cards for most people). If you overtake with a three-card or longer holding, it is because you have two honours. I am a big fan of Eddie Kantar by the way, though I would have said the same thing if you had put the names the other way round.
A raise from 1H to 4H takes up a lot of bidding space – it is a pre-emptive action – you only want to do this when you have a big fit. If you have the playing strength for game and only a 4-4 fit, you will have plenty of high cards and no reason to rush the bidding with a big leap to game.
Ingrid, I am answering your question as you have posted it here but in future if you ask a question on a different topic then please start a new post.
Leading the fourth highest 7 is fine. Your partner should be able to work out that there are enough higher cards missing for the lead to be fourth best.
McKenney is a reference to suit preference, so a high card suggests an interest in a high-ranking suit, a low card suggests interest in a low-ranking suit.
S A Q 10 4
H 8 5 2
D J 6 3
C 10 5 3
If the opponents are in a heart contract and you decide to lead a trump, you could lead the high 8 because your strength lies in the high-ranking spade suit.
If you rebid 2NT when partner has passed, you are showing a really good hand. If you open 2NT you are showing 20 (or more) points so you need very nearly that to be rebidding 2NT with nothing from partner – say 18-20 (you might have 20 points and the wrong shape to have opened 2NT).
If partner makes a change of suit response at the two level, this shows 10 points (or maybe a good 9) so if you were planning to rebid NT over a one-level response you can still rebid in NT after a two-level response. I play that jumping to 3NT shows 15-17 and only four in your major but most people play that a jump to 3NT shows extras, so you would rebid 2NT with 15-17.
You had put the word ‘discards’ in the subject title, which is why my reply was about discards. In theory opponents could play odd cards to encourage and even cards to discourage (or vice versa) when following suit but I do not recall having come across that. All or almost all pairs play high and low as the way to indicate attitude when following suit.
If you play double for penalty, which I believe is what Bernard teaches, you cannot sensibly do that. With a poor heart suit and no tens or nines, this is not good as 11 point hands go. Playing 2NT as Lebensohl, you could bid 2NT and then over partner’s forced 3C you continue with 3H. This is weaker than bidding 3H directly.
If you play 3H as forcing, that is a clear overbid. If you play 2NT as natural, that is a reasonable choice. It is unlikely that the overcaller has A-K-Q-x-x-x.
Most partnerships would have not have discussed this sequence. There are two possible meanings for the raise (i) natural (ii) I have a decent hand but am not sure where we are going. On this particular sequence, playing traditional Acol, opener could have a 4-4-4-1 shape so that is how I would read the 3S bid. If you are playing 5-card majors or if you have agreed that you do not open 1H on 4-4-4-1 shapes (unless you are strong enough to rebid 2NT over 2C) then opener could be still be 4-5-4-0.
Following the principle that it is better to lie about a minor than a major, I would rather open 1D (or perhaps 1NT if the singleton club is an honour) on 4-4-4-1 hands.
If you have a four-card suit headed by the ace-king, it is usual to lead the ace (whichever of the ace and king is not an unblock card in your methods). With a five-card or longer suit headed by the ace-king, it is usual to lead fourth best.
Yes the hand that Brian Davies quotes would be a good example of one the rare hands on which the 1NT opener would reopen with a double. Holding four cards in both majors means the partnership has a reasonable chance of reaching a playable contract.
If the other three players are bidding, it is hard to see how you could have enough to make a penalty double of 2NT – it would only really be possible if someone has psyched. Another point to bear in mind is that a 2NT bid is invitational and for all you know opener is about to raise to 3NT (or take the auction higher in some other way). Most partnerships would not have an agreement about the meaning of the double and it is a good general rule to avoid making calls that partner is unlikely to understand.
If you introduce a major suit at the two level after partner has opened and the next hand has overcalled, this does show a five-card or longer suit – this is the same as a 2H response to a 1S opening in an uncontested auction. If you have only four cards in the major, you make a negative double instead. You can bid 2 of a minor in competition with a four-card suit.
There are two general rules here. (i) If you have two equal length suits, one with the ace and one without, it is usually better to lead the suit without. The ace will be a winner whether you lead the suit or not whereas you might not make any tricks in the other suit until you have driven out the opposing stopper(s).
(ii) leading from a five-card or longer suit headed by the ace is usually a good idea – if you do give away a trick, the possibility of making a long card or two will often compensate. Leading from a four-card suit headed by the ace is much less attractive because quite often an opponent will have four as well and there will be no long cards to make – and even if the suit breaks 4333 round the table there will be just the one long card to make.
