bravejason

Playing Standard American, an uncontested auction begins: 1D - 1H 1S - Responder has 4 or more spades. How does responder: 1. show a weak hand and a desire to stop bidding? 2. show more than a minimum, but not enough to invite game? 3. invite game? 4. force to game? 5. show slam interest?

Thanks. That was very educational. I hadn’t thought about it as a forcing pass concept.

In some competitive auctions, responder’s pass shows a hand that is strong (or not weak) whereas responder’s double shows a weak hand. Does anyone know why it is this way as opposed to the other way around? I know the other way around is played, but standard or more common method seems to be that pass=strong and double=weak. I’m looking for history lesson more than anything else, but would also be curious to know the pros/cons of each.

I once read a comment to the effect of ‘you can’t discard trump losers’, suggesting that it is better to have the stronger suit as trump. It seems to me that one should prefer the weaker suit as trumps on the basis that weak trump cards can still win tricks via ruffing whereas weak side suit cards always lose. That said, I’ve seen hands where I wished one was the other and vice versa. So, the best thing I’ve found to do is not worry about it and just let the cards fall where they may. It’d be better, of course, to figure out during the bidding which suit should be trump and which should be the side suit and bid accordingly, but I’ve no idea how one would go about doing that considering that the exactly which cards held by partner are unknown and the exact number of cards held is often unknown too.

Maybe a card is cut off in some browsers? I see only 12 cards too: 10 to 4; 9 & 7; and 8, 7, & 3.

Pass. Maybe partner will bid again and give us some more information about her hand.

After an auction start such as 1C - 1H 1S - 2D (FSF) Assume FSF is game forcing (Don’t some people play it as less than game forcing?). How does opener show extra values? How does opener show minimal values? How does Responder do the same?

I would have passed. With 5 clubs in your hand either the opponents will exhaust their trumps pulling yours and then partners high cards clean up or the opponents will expend trumps ruffing partner’s high cards and then your trumps are winners. When your side declares, it can only be played from partners hand due to the lack of high cards in your hand. It’s tough to play from one hand only unless it has a running suits because there is no way to attack a suit from the opposite hand or finesse an otherwise badly placed opposing high card.

Wondering if anyone could provide a summary of standard or common meaning of doubles and cue bids when the bid being doubled or cue’ed is artificial. For example, doubles of artificial bids are often lead directing, but sometimes not. When is it lead directing versus other? Another example, is there a difference between cue bidding a bid that was purely artificial (e.g., Precision 1 Club) versus one that shows specifics suit(s) (e.g., Jacoby transfer)?

This is harsh. What specifically is the issue for you? You mentioned minor suit structure, but didn’t elaborate on what you felt was wrong.

What does west’s 2C bid mean?

Since 3NT describes the hand, I think you have to bid it. Yes, it effectively uses two levels of bidding space, but that’s a different issue.

North has a nice hand, but when South could do nothing but make a simple rebid of hearts despite knowing North had a strong two-suiter, maybe North should just pass.

You misunderstood my comment about proper. I meant that in the context of the definition. I used ‘proper’ to try to clarify that I was referencing the GF version, not the limit raise. I’ve always understood that the reason for a direct game forcing raise, even in 2/1, is to differentiate trump support. 2/1 GF followed by support for opener is three card trump support. Jacoby 2NT shows four card trump support while also being game forcing. Similarly the direct raise is limited and shows four card support and the delayed raise via 1NT is limited and three card support. Could 2NT used be used better? Possibly. Though I think that if I were to use it show something else, I’d use it to show a balanced, invitational hand.

My first thought was ‘what does a 2NT limit raise gain over other methods?’ A couple of the responses noted some of the benefits, though I’m not seeing enough value there to offset the loss of proper Jacoby 2NT. After a limit 2NT, opener has to delay and responder spends two bids explaining what could have been said in one bid. Perhaps you save some space in a limit raise auction, but it seems like you give it back in a game forcing auction.