Tramticket

There are two things to consider: (1) will you treat the hand as balanced? and (2) does the hand fall within your no trump range? There was a time when the consensus was to never open 1NT with a five-card major but times and attitudes have changed and many players (including me) now regularly open 1NT with a five-card major. There are arguments both ways, but you and your partner should agree your partnership approach. The hand has 17HCP, but that five-card spade suit with three honours makes this hand close to an upgrade - taking the hand outside the NT range for many. Personally, I play a weak NT - so an easy 1S for me :)

Natural, showing a balanced invitational hand with a five-card heart suit - seems obvious?

It is possible to have different agreements, but a common agreement is that a splinter is recognised as an "unnecessary jump" in a new suit. It shows a shortage in the suit bid and agrees partner's suit. The auction 1NT, 2♦; 2♥, 4♣ is a slightly different case - it does not agree partner's suit. Some do play it as a self-splinter - i.e setting your own suit as trumps and showing a shortage. Others play the sequence as natural (showing a second five-card suit) or as a cue-bid showing a control. This is down to partnership agreement.

Great comment. I'm pretty sure that I would pass. But in tempo???

"East could redouble" ... maybe we find our club sacrifice then! "why does north think it necessary to bid 3C?" ... Maybe North thinks that (at least) six certain club tricks + KQX in partner's suit + a void adds up to a good hand? Don't you like North's hand?

I guess that this is possible. But with an enormous hand, he still might find out more by starting with a double. I take partner's pass as forcing and don't feel I have sufficient extra to bid on.

Unless west is a complete beginner, I can only guess that he holds good defensive values against a diamond contract. Seven hearts and five diamonds maybe? Whatever the explanation, I would double.

Many of my partners will recognise this :)

Well done America. A great advert for bridge - a great mind enhancing sport. Contrast this with boxing, where the objective is to cause brain damage in your opponent ...

I believe that it shows a good 18+.

I play 4-card majors and a weak NT, but I don't think that this is important to the discussion. What is important is the other two-level bids. We cover balanced 21-22 in our multi 2D bid as well as the weak two in a major. We use 2H to show a 2-suited including hearts and our 2S bid to show a 2-suited including spades. 2NT is then used to show a weak 2-suited in the minors.

Despite the snobbish snearing, I'm prepared to admit that I've played a lot of Benji and find it perfectly playable. My preferred system with my regular partner is a multi. But Benji is preferable to "three weak twos" in my book. The main problem with Benji is not the 2C bid - it is the 2D bid when you hold a heart suit. When I play a Benji, the 2C bid is the equivalent to an old-fashioned strong Acol two bid.

It's all a bit random. West has massively under-bid, east has over-bid. Your partner doesn't really have the bid - but as I commented, I have made worse over-calls. No, I wouldn't double. But difficult to guess what to do in these type of auctions.

It looks a very likely singleton to me. But I've been scratching my head trying to work out how to cater for it. Hence my comment "Seems to need west to not have a void or singleton."

Dummy Reversal? Win Queen of hearts and play the ace of clubs, discovering that east is void. Spade to the ace and ruff a spade low. Ace of hearts, ace of diamonds, diamond to the king, ruff a spade high. Ruff a diamond, ruff a spade high, ruff a diamond and cash the jack of clubs Seems to need west to not have a void or singleton.

Curiously, I would be more likely to make the bid at IMPs. Opponents are far less likely to double for penalties at IMPs (risking doubling you into game). And at IMPs, you at least have the potential upside of bidding a slim game. If you swap the hearts and spades and I would be seriously considering a 2♠ bid - there is a big difference between owning and not owning the spade suit.

You are right to pass. You only have 6 points (all in your shorrt suits) and a misfit for partner. South has made a terrible bid. Over-calling at the two level is very different from over-calling at the one level. If you give South a sixth diamond and an extra ace he will be close to the value to over-call. This should get North/South into trouble and it sounds as if they did get into trouble - although I have no idea how they settled on a spade contract. I would expect North to bid 2NT after you pass 2♦ and be left to play there.

You're bidding at the two-level. Its a poor suit, which you don't want partner to lead. Ten points with QX in spades is of dubious value, no connected honours, no intermediaries. East is unlimited and might be preparing to double. Partner can always protect. I've made worse over-calls, but yes, its poor.

I'm not a director - just a punter - so I might be missing it. My reading is that 23.A.1 uses the wording "same or similar meaning" - but 2NT clearly doesn't have a similar meaning to "pass". 23.A.2 doesn't say "same or similar" - it says "defines a subset of the possible meanings attributable to the withdrawn call". This definition is a bit fuzzy - it is "possible" (but unlikely in the year 2017) to define a pass as any hand with fewer than 13 points. Come to that, it is a "possible" meaning of pass to define it as 0-15 HCP. Any takers?

I guess that it would depend on partnership agreements, but suppose: (i) 2NT shows 11-12 points as suggested above; (ii) The partnership would open with all (or almost all) 12-counts - this is surely the case for most pairs? Surely a 2NT bid in these circumstances must be specifically 11 points? In this case it isn't a subset?

Thanks for these problems - very instructive. The inference that RHO must have a stop for the pass makes sense and was something that I didn't pick up.

What would you do if holding a big hand with a club suit? Presumably you have to start showing it at the four level? Or bury the club suit completely? Or always open the club suit at the one level and risk partner passing. This is the first time that I have come across the suggestion that 3C would be Stayman in this auction and yes, I do find it a bit odd. If 2NT is a natural positive, then it is normal to play the auction as forcing to 4NT. This allows you to make a forcing raise of 2NT to 3NT and bidding can proceed naturally from there. You can locate 4-4 fits in the majors (or the minors) and Stayman is not needed.

This use of Stayman is NOT standard. It is rather odd and I suspect a typo by the person setting the quiz. [Note: many will try to avoid a 2NT response over 2♣ since it wrong-sides the contract. A simple agreement would be that 2♦ shows either a negative or no useful suit.].

Also: (1D)- 1NT - Yes (2H) - 2NT - Yes

1D-(p)-1N-(p)- No 1H-(p)-1N-(p)- No 1D-(p)-2N-(p)- No 1S-(p)-2N*-(p)- *Assuming a natural 2NT, not jacoby 2NT. - No 2N-(p)- Yes 2C-(p)-2D-(p)-2N-(p)- Yes 2C-(p)-2H-(p)-2N-(p)- Yes (for me) 1D-(p)-1S-(p)-2N-(p)- No