holding a balanced 18-19

[awm]

Of course it's obvious that if you're agreement is rebidding 1♠ "shows an unbalanced hand" that you have to rebid 2NT. We can have a long argument about the merits of such an agreement -- there are both obvious advantages (when you rebid 1♠, partner can raise your minor on three, if you later show a fit for hearts partner knows you have singleton in the other minor, etc) and obvious disadvantages (sometimes you wrong-side a notrump contract, you land in the wrong partial when partner has spades and less than invite, etc).

 

But suppose your agreement is to normally rebid 1♠ when you have a balanced "weak notrump" with four spades. Is there really much advantage to rebidding 2NT instead when you have a balanced 18-19 with four spades? Certainly you "announce your values" right away, but at the same time you have taken up a lot of your own side's space and definitely made the partial worse when partner is weak...

[jdonn]

We are very fortunate that the inventors of common bidding systems thought to include a way to show a balanced hand with 18-19 high card points. It has made our lives easy for generations to come. It is a shame for people who want to rebid 1♠ that they invented no such way after partner rebids 2♦/2♥ to show such a hand.

[Free]

I think you should bypass a major every time you have a balanced hand, so I would have no problem with 2NT here. The continuation Frances suggested is excellent and exactly what I and many others teach students here.

 

Rebidding 1♠ (may or may not be a balanced hand) creates some problems with a hand like this:

 

♠ KJ54

♥ Q108

♦ Q87

♣ AJ4

 

1♣ - 1♥

1♠ - 2♦

2♥

 

This sounds like a 4-3-1-5 hand to me, and as responder I would be very disappointed to find a 4333 in dummy. As opener I would feel much more comfortable if it goes

 

1♣ - 1♥

1NT

 

Roland

The biggest problem with bypassing ♠ to bid 1NT is when partner has a weak hand with 5♥ and 4♠. Unless you have some tool to show such hand, it's one hell of a problem. From the moment you have invite or better, this is no problem anymore ofcourse.

 

For 2NT rebids, it's just common practice to skip ♠, because it tells a lot about your hand. There are lots of tools to find out about 4♠ or 3♥, and the situation is usually GF, so no problems there...