Competitive Cuebid

[Ant590]

(1♥) – 2♦ – (pass) – 2♠*

(pass) – 3♥

 

*forcing for one round

 

A bit of confusion resulted in a regular partnership of mine from the 3♥ bid. What would you take it to be (opposite your regular partner, not just a pick-up), and what general structure (if any) does such a bid belong to? (i.e. is there a generic rule for you when a cue is a raise, stop ask or something else?)

 

What about

(1♥) – dbl – (pass) – 2♠

(pass) – 3♥?

 

Thanks in advance.

[P_Marlowe]

#1 for me 2S would be nonforcing, which as far as I know is

standard, but nevertheless is important to know

#2 3H asks for further description, e.g. a stopper, a 6th spade,

but does not create a game force, i.e. 3S could be passed

we usually give up on slam, after they have opened, an

advice original given by Marty Bergen (?!), i.e. we dont need

to be able to create a gameforce with a 3H cue bid

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[Ant590]

Ah, I should have added that we play 2♠ as forcing, have edited the OP.

[Guest Jlall]

Artificial game force without 4+ clubs.

 

In the second one artificial game force without a good long minor unless hand contains a slam try for spades.

[gnasher]

My rule is that the cue bid shows a raise only when it needs to, because we may need to preempt the opponents. Otherwise it is game-forcing and asks for further description, with emphasis on a stop for notrump purposes.

 

"When it needs to" is usually fairly obvious, but I think it translates to "at least one opponent is unlimited, or only limited by being a passed hand".

 

In both of these auctions, the cue bid asks for further description. As Justin implies, in either auction a new suit instead of the cue bid would be forcing.

[Cascade]

This is a strong hand without clear direction and normally without a spade fit. I suppose it could be an advanced cue for spades but I tend to dislike ambiguous calls like that.

 

We play cue-raises on these patterns and these patterns only:

 

(Opening Bid) Overcall (Pass/Bid/Double) Cue-bid

 

Opening Bid (Overcall) Cue-bid

 

The opening bid can be preceded by any number of passes. In the second case the overcall can be in fourth seat. The first case can be extended to auctions in which both opponents have bid.

 

(Opening Bid) Pass (Response) Overcall;

(Any) Cue-bid

 

We have some more convoluted auctions where a cue-bid shows a fit but these are not really cue-raises. They usually show a singleton in the opponent's suit. They occur when we would have some other action (normally) double available for a hand without clear direction. e.g.

 

1♣ (1♠) 2♥ (2♠)

 

Dbl competitive or any strong hand

 

3♠ heart raise with shortage in spades