Checkback/NMF With Weak NT, and NT Rebid

[pbleighton]

I play 11-14 NT with one partner. We play opener's rebid shows 15-17. Questions:

1) With the NT rebid being strong, would you recommend that the sequence 1m-1M-1NT-2OtherMinor be:

a) Forcing and natural, showing ?+ points

B) Not forcing, showing a weak 2 suiter, as in Standard American methods

c) Some type of NMF or Checkback (specify preference and details)

2) We play that a second rebid by opener (i.e. 1H-1S-2C-2S-2NT) doesn't show 15-17, and is probably a minimum opener. Is this appropriate?

[luis]

Hi, I play a treatment that can be very good for your 11-14 NT since it's specially designed for 3hcp-wide NTs.

 

After

1c-1d;1NT we play our NT structure as a normal 1NT opening but now in 15-17 range.

 

After 1m-1M; 1NT I play a double checkback with a twist

 

2c: Any invitational hand or signoff in 2d, opener must bid 2d and now

responder passes or bids naturally with an invitational hand. If

responder bids 2NT it's a "solid" invitation (about 12-13) HCP and

we expect pd to go to 3NT with a good 12hcp hand or any 13-14

hand.

2d: Game forcing (any) opener rebids as in nmf

2M: Signoff

2om: Less than invitational values 5-4 hand

2NT: Light invitation (11-12) HCP, opener should bid game only with good 13 hcp or 14hcp.

3m: Weak signoff

3om: Weak signoff

 

Hope this helps.

Luis

[Codo]

Hi Peter,

 

1. I would cleary vote for c checkback/nmf or even better: Play 2 Club as artifical and 2 Diamond and 2 Heart as weak and non forcing.

Put this together with Walsh and you have a quite modern approach to the one level openings.

 

My prefered method is called "Relay transfers":

 

After

1m 1Spade

1 NT 2 club:

 

2 Diamond normal relay

2 Spade: 3 card support

 

After 2 Diamond:

Pass to play

2 Heart: Inv. with 54 majors

2 Spade Inv with 5 spades

2 NT Inv with 5 Spades

3 Club to play

....

3 NT pass or correct to 4 Spade

 

Without the 2 Club relay:

(Again after f.e.

1 m 1 Spade

1 NT:

2 Diamond:to play

2 Heart 5-4 majors pass or correct

2 Spade to play

2 NT inv. with 4 Spades

3 Club strong GF with Clubs

3 Diamond GF with D

3 Heart 55 Majors GF

3 Spade 6 Spades GF

3 NT to play with 4 Spades

 

You can get some more features, so we had defined some more bids, but otoh we never really used them.

 

2. I guess the given sequences 1 H-1S-2C-2S-2NT

should show something very special. But Unluckily, I am not able to see, what.

But I don`t think, that this should show a weak semi-balanced hand. Because with 12-14 and 2524 you can just pass 2 Spade.

I think the minimum bids are: PASS or 3 Club and maybe 3 Heart. But anything else should be strong.

 

Kind Regards

 

Roland

[pbleighton]

Thank you Luis and Roland for your comments.

 

You both recommend using 2D as NMF. I gather that there are different approaches to it.

Does it always guarantee that the responder's major bid at the one level is at least 5 cards?

What relay sequence do you recommend?

[inquiry]

I use the two way checkback on

 

1x-1y

1NT-?

 

Where

2C --> forces 2D, and if responder bids again, its game try

2D --> artificial game force

 

 

1H-1S

2C-2S

2N

 

Should not be weak, balanced semibalanced, as you should either open 1NT or pass 2S with that hand.

[luis]

Thank you Luis and Roland for your comments.

 

You both recommend using 2D as NMF. I gather that there are different approaches to it.

Does it always guarantee that the responder's major bid at the one level is at least 5 cards?

What relay sequence do you recommend?

 

No, as I said I play 2d to be ANY GF hand, opener is expected to bid 2M with 3 card support, 2OM with 4 cards or 3m with 5 cards (3om with 2344) 2NT with 4333 (4m). Then it should be easy to coninue naturally. Yes I said that :-)

[inquiry]

You might also want to check out Yzerman's very detailed answer to this very question in an eralire thread in the 2/1 forum when discussing "walsh vs up the line bidding, as well as the responses of others who waded in on the subject.

 

http://forums.bridgebase.com/in...t=msg288#msg288

[ewj]

I am sorry to bring this post back up.....

 

I use the two way checkback on

 

1x-1y

1NT-?

 

Where

2C --> forces 2D, and if responder bids again, its game try

2D --> artificial game force

 

 

1H-1S

2C-2S

2N

 

Should not be weak, balanced semibalanced, as you should either open 1NT or pass 2S with that hand.

 

that looks good. But do you play anything like that after 1x-1y-2NT?

 

Also if responder has 5 hearts and 5 diamonds weak and it goes 1C-1H-1NT-2C, should opener puppet to 2H instead with 3 card support and only 2 diamonds as would rather play there than 2D.

 

Thanks

[MickyB]

Try googling Wolff Relay, IIRC it's 3♣ as a puppet to 3♦.

 

The problem with breaking the puppet to 2♥ is that partner might have been about to show an invite with five hearts. What does he do now? In this style responder could be 6♦4♥, so 2♦ could still be your best spot.

[ewj]

Ok, so how are the following different:

 

1D-1S-1NT-3S

 

1D-1S-1NT-2C-2D-3S

 

1D-1S-1NT-2D-2H-3S

[MickyB]

1) 6 card slam-try

2) 6 card invite to game

3) Good question! Probably a hand wanting to hear more about partner's shape before showing the 6 card slam-try - not that I would expect it to come up, mind! In my methods (is it standard?) any 4333 would rebid 2N over 2D, so even playing Better Minor opener has promised 4-4 in the reds.

[the hog]

Ok, so how are the following different:

 

1D-1S-1NT-3S

 

Invitational with a 6 card suit

 

1D-1S-1NT-2C-2D-3S

 

GF with a 6 card suit - but see the sequence below

 

1D-1S-1NT-2D-2H-3S

 

Categorically sets S as trumps and is RKCB

 

IMO better than 2 way checkback is transfer checkback - a structure I have already mentioned in previous posts viz

1D-1S-1NT-2C - puppet to 2D, varios weak or invit hands

1D-1S-1NT-2D - transfer to H, weak or gf+

1D-1S-1NT-2H - transfer to S

1D-1S-1NT-2S - strong, slammish and asks for partner's distribution