Difficult second bid

[juljak]

I have tried to learn on my own for a while and play both with Gibs and live on BBO. I faced this situation playing with the Gibs and really didn't know how to handle it. I know some will say the Gibs are bad, but i believe I might have reached the same situation playing with humans.

 

I held A10542, AJ5, J542, A with my partner dealing. The bidding went 1D-pass-1S-pass-1NT-pass-? What is my correct bid now?

 

I know we need to reach game based on strength. I know p has got a balanced hand. I was contemplating 3N and 4S as a bid in D or S wouldn't be forcing and i held too few of the others to bid them. I was worried about C if I bid NT and about finding myself in a 7-card fit if i bid S.

 

Sorry if this is a question at a level being too basic, but I couldn't find a good solution at the table.

 

Best regards and hoping for some feedback the first time I post here.

 

juljak

[smerriman]

GIB plays New minor forcing. A bit of 2♣ here is artificial, and you'll get a response in spades if GIB has 3 card support.

 

I'll let the actual experts expand on this (and probably why there are better things to play than new minor forcing, though all systems need to include a cheap forcing bid here).

[Stephen Tu]

With Gib, bid 2c, a convention called "new minor forcing".

 

Pretty much all players beyond beginning stage use some sort of convention in this position to confirm or not a 5-3 spade fit and/or set up a forcing diamond raise. (also for finding a 44 heart fit since 2h is not forcing). There are many different schemes, some using the unbid minor, some using both minors, some always 2c. You can search the net for, among others, if you are curious:

new minor forcing (nmf)

two way checkback

two way puppet checkback

XYZ aka XYnt on this auction

checkback stayman

transfer checkback

 

My personal preference is two way puppet checkback.

[The_Badger]

With Gib, bid 2c, a convention called "new minor forcing".

 

You forgot the Crowhurst convention, Stephen :) I have a feeling the late Eric Crowhurst of England was the first to devise a 2♣ checkback.

[juljak]

Thank you for the help. I should have remembered NMF, but forgot. Would you in this situation regard NMF as forcing for one round or forcing to game?

 

Regards juljak

[Stephen Tu]

std nmf is forcing one round only. Which rebids are forcing the following round are somewhat arbitrary and subject to partnership agreement. Raising opener's 2 of either major is nf, as is 2nt. 3 of one's own unsupported suit, 3 of opener's minor, 3 of a new suit, can be played as either forcing or inv. Generally you want the opposite meaning from a direct jump to 3 the previous round, bypassing nmf.

[ggwhiz]

What I recommend for playing with the bots is to click on options, then under other options you can put a check mark on confirm bids.

 

In a situation like this you can click on 2♣ (or any other bid for that matter) and hover over it to get an explanation of how the bot will interpret it. If you don't like what you see you can change your bid since it's not submitted until you click on OK.

 

Things like forcing one round or to game are included in the explanation too.