Philosophical question

[pbleighton]

"Wow bidding 2d on that hand seems to be a huge position even if we assume 1s may be on zero hcp."

 

Your statement seems like a huge position to me :rolleyes:

 

Seriously, I don't like jumping in the minors with 15 counts, unless there is a near-solid suit. The majors are a different story - with hearts with the auction 1H-1S I would probably bid 3S.

 

Peter

[awm]

Seems like the answer to this will depend on a lot of questions, among which:

 

(1) What is 1♦-2♠ (if it's weak or invitational it reduces the possible hand types)?

(2) Could the 2♦ rebid ever be a five-card suit?

(3) Could the 2♠ rebid ever be a five-card suit?

(4) How frequent is it for the 2♦ bidder to hold three spades?

(5) What are the upper and lower limits of strength for a 2♦ bid?

 

For Elianna and me, the answers are:

 

(1) Strong; at least a game force with good spades.

(2) Virtually never. The problem distributions are 2-4-5-2 and 1-4-5-3; with either we will rebid 1NT holding up to 15 or so hcp (with the first we might've opened 1NT with 15-16), and we will reverse into 2♥ holding a decent 16 or so and 1453.

(3) Never. Even with a diamond void, the knowledge that partner has 6+ diamonds and almost never 3 spades makes pulling to 2♠ undesirable.

(4) Very rare, we usually raise on three. The exceptions include very strong diamonds and usually weak spades (xxx Kx AQJTxx Qx).

(5) Minimum around 11, we are willing to open a weak 2♦ on reasonable ten counts. We also jump to 3♦ fairly freely (for example Kx Ax AQJTxxx xx is a 3♦ bid, x KQx KQJxxx Axx is a 3♦ bid), so the upper range is normally 14, or occasionally 15 with a weakish suit.

 

Under these constraints it makes sense for 2♠ to be a fairly wide range of values; we know we don't have enough for 3NT for example. Opener can raise with a hand particularly suited to playing spades opposite a known six-card suit (xxx Kx AQJTxx Qx, Kx Axxx AQxxxx x).

[Fluffy]

I cannot think of any hand that may bid over 2♠ on this sequence. Except one that bids 3♦ with ♦KQJ10xxx and ♠void.