Supporting openers 2nd suit

[bravejason]

In an uncontested auction, how does responder show invitational, game, and slam hands when supporting opener’s second suit?

 

Examples:

1D-1H

1S-?

 

1H-1S

2D-?

[Stephen Tu]

modern day, majority methods:

1m-1h-1S, 1 level suit rebid:

• invite: 3S (2S = min hand 4 cd support, opener can still be quite strong and unlikely you buy it for just one anyway; pass is usually 3 cd support that doesn't fancy 1nt or 2m preference, or a really wretched min)
• min GF, flat: 4S
• GF, splinter: 4m (be careful about this one if playing with low level partner who doesn't know about splinters)
• GF, extras, some slam interest: 4th suit forcing (2c here), followed by supporting spades next turn.

Alternatives treatments used by a minority:"xyz"

• invite: 2C, which puppets to 2D (unless opener unusually strong), followed by 2S. In xyz invites go through 2C, which allows you to stop in 2S when opener wasn't accepting.
• GF: either 3S or 2D artificial GF, followed by spade raise. How these are distinguished from one another are partnership agreement, one can be slammish other not, or one can show longer hearts, or can just go whether you'd rather describe your hand or ask about opener's shape.

old fashioned/Goren/Aces Scientific (Goldman)/Root-Pavlicek:

• invite: 4th suit followed by support spades (this style tends to invite through 4th suit and jump to force, rather than the other way around)
• GF: 3S, 4S, splinters as above

After 1h-1s-2d, 2 level, non-reverse rebid, the standard majority treatment is:

• raise 3d: inv
• 4th suit (here 3c): any GF, followed by raising diamonds (which is awkward since you are now bypassing 3nt, so you usually only do this with slammish hands; min GF hands will often pass opener's 3nt)

Unusual partnership agreements used by a few people can shuffle the meanings of 2s/3c/3d around, some use direct raise minor forcing, some use 2S artificial (with natural long weak spades having bid 1h-2s weak jump shift) to give more space.

[ahydra]

modern day, majority methods:

1m-1h-1S, 1 level suit rebid:

• [*]invite: 3S (2S = min hand 4 cd support, opener can still be quite strong and unlikely you buy it for just one anyway; pass is usually 3 cd support that doesn't fancy 1nt or 2m preference, or a really wretched min)[*]min GF, flat: 4S[*]GF, splinter: 4m (be careful about this one if playing with low level partner who doesn't know about splinters)[*]GF, extras, some slam interest: 4th suit forcing (2c here), followed by supporting spades next turn.[/list

 

Do you allow splinters into opener's minor (1D-1H; 1S-4D), or is that specifically the other minor (1D-1H; 1S-4C = 4531-ish)?

 

After 1h-1s-2d, 2 level, non-reverse rebid, the standard majority treatment is:

 

don't forget the "impossible spade" for raising a minor: 1H-1NT; 2D-2S = good raise in diamonds vs. 3D = "courtesy" (more PRE than constructive) raise in diamonds. I'm guessing the ranges of these raises differ a fair bit between 2/1 and standard.

 

ahydra

[Stephen Tu]

Do you allow splinters into opener's minor (1D-1H; 1S-4D), or is that specifically the other minor (1D-1H; 1S-4C = 4531-ish)?

I do, given that the opening can be 3 or 4 cd suit with no honors, this is a good way to find out if there is wastage or not. Note that this sequence is 4-4 fit only so you typically need stronger hands than sequence like 1c-1h-2h-4c (also spl).

Forcing raises of the minor can go through 4th suit or the xyz 2d call.

don't forget the "impossible spade" for raising a minor: 1H-1NT; 2D-2S = good raise in diamonds vs. 3D = "courtesy" (more PRE than constructive) raise in diamonds. I'm guessing the ranges of these raises differ a fair bit between 2/1 and standard.

 

Right, when the response is 1nt instead of 1S. But in that case GF and slammish hands have been excluded. 1H-1S auctions are much harder to deal with since both sides nearly unlimited.

 

[FelicityR]

Whilst I entirely agree with Mr Tu's (and ahydra's) excellent comments, we are venturing into Advanced bridge player territory with some of the responses available. The post is in the Novice and Beginner Forum, and whilst the only way to learn about constructive bidding is reading about it, I expect sometimes it is a little too much to take in all at once.

 

However, if you can divide it into bitesize chunks it will make an excellent template.