Responding to 2NT

[Liversidge]

After my past posting asking how to respond to 1NT with 3-0 split in the majors, as luck would have it we had a similar situation last night, only this time with partner responding to 2NT.

Partner held [hv=pc=n&n=shk75dq963ckt8642]133|100[/hv]

 

I have checked my bidding reference and apparently with an unbalanced hand and partner should have bid 3NT. Is this still the case with a void?

[Mbodell]

3nt over 2nt with this hand is quite reasonable. You have only an 8 count opposite 20-21. That usually isn't enough for slam. To further complicate matters, most people don't have good was to investigate slam in the minors over 2nt. With this much shape it is probably about 50/50 if slam is on, maybe a little less, but it will be hard for you to investigate and while often 6♣ is the right slam sometimes it will be 6♦ and an occasional 6♥ or 6nt may be right, and again it will be hard to land on your feet in all these cases.

[Zelandakh]

The above is good practical advice. If you did want to investigate slam then it would make sense to try to find out something about partner's hand before making a commitment. The obvious way to do that would be to start with 3♣. If partner now denied a 4 card major the prospects for a minor suit slam are immediately rosier, while partner showing 4 spades would suggest staying low. If playing a convention called Puppet Stayman here you can narrow it down slightly more helping to bring a heart slam into the picture.

 

You should not feel bad about missing (or having to guess) borderline slams after a 2NT opening though - even experts miss these sometimes. This is an area where a little extra system can help a lot but generally there are more important things for beginners to be paying attention to first so improving the 2NT structure has to wait until I/A level and a regular partnership.

[Cyberyeti]

There are lots of complicated methods that I won't bring into this forum for hands like this, your basic choice initially is (assuming some sort of 5 card stayman is being played):

 

See if partner has 5 hearts and if he does bid either 4♣ or 4♠ (which will be a void, whether it asks aces as well is up to taste), if he doesn't have 5 hearts, I'll bid 4♣ anyway.

 

Bid the hand as a one suited slam try with clubs (methods vary how to do this but often start with 3♠)

 

Bid the hand as a minor 2 suiter if you have a way of doing this.

 

In my experience, a 6 card suit and an 8 count that doesn't need devaluing, and this one definitely doesn't, will make a slam more often than not opposite 20 balanced if the opps don't have two tricks in aces and trumps. So I'm going to investigate, it's just a question of how.

[mikeh]

As others have suggested, bidding over our own 2N is a very complex area. This makes sense because we have so little bidding room (bidding space) between 2N and the most likely game contract, 3N, and a whole lot of hand-types where we'd like to explore both level and strain.

 

Even on hands that are strong enough to force beyond 3N, bidding space is very limited. It is for these reasons that many experienced pairs use conventions that 'nest' various hand-types. Thus it is common, tho not in any way universal, to use 3♠ as a puppet (technically a marionette) to 3N....over which responder can then use bids at the 4-level to show various strong hand types, which hand types were all 'nested' in the 3♠ call.

 

All of this is simply to explain why you ought not to feel that you should have a solution....these hands are rare and the memory work to play complex methods is substantial...a lot of work for a very rare gain. This sort of work becomes easier once more common sequences have become second nature or if you are planning on playing a lot of serious bridge against good opps....otherwise my advice is not to worry about having to make a guess or two.

 

Here, give up on slam. Slam may or may not be great, but the truth is you probably can't find out. You (and the vast majority of people who play this game, as opposed to the small number who frequent forums) don't have the methods.

 

You have to choose between 3N and 5♣.

 

At mps, I choose 3N. We are likely to make overtricks if we make (and we are favourite to make). In a typical mp field, bidding 3N will get you close to average even if slam makes, since few pairs will be able to bid the slam.

 

At imps, I bid 5♣, since 5♣, imo, is slightly more likely to make AND on an exceptional day partner may be able to raise. I stress: an exceptional day, where he has a club fit and a maximum with, usually, all the Aces. AKxx Axx Ax AJxx is the sort of layout on which opener can reason that he has a far more suitable hand in clubs that you could be expecting, so he is worth a bump.