I don't think I have ever discussed this. After 1
- Pass - Pass most people play 1NT as a balanced hand of modest strength, 11-15 being a common range. So it's different from the immediate 1NT directly over 1
. But how about 2
-Pass-Pass-2NT? It seems right to make this pretty strong. After all, you do need 8 tricks and while the 2
shows less strength than a 1
opening, the Rho's pass of 2
could be on pretty decent strength.
Here is the hand that prompted this thinking. I'll start with my hand (second position, 2
opened on my right):
T6
A43
T72
JT852
Ok, over 2
on my right I chose to Pass. Then a Pass on my left and a double by partner. Pass on my right. Yuk.
Not for the first time I was not really sure of our agreements. If 2NT would be a Lebensohl relay to 3
I could do that and then pass, but were we playing Leb here? I decided to bid 3
and hope for the best. Partner now bid 3NT. Ok, he has to play it, not me.
T6
A43
T72
JT852
AJ42
QT8
AK86
A6
The story has a happy ending. A
lead would beat 3NT but W, holding
975, somehow failed to find such an obvious (
) lead.
I'm thinking that after 2
- Pass - Pass, the S hand could bid 2NT. I would pass and we would not get that nice +400, but it seems right.
Suppose we were playing Leb and suppose then that over partner's X I bid a Leb 2NT intending to pass the 3
. The problem is that partner is not going to be happy bidding 3
because (a) he has only Ax in
and (b) the hand probably belongs in NT. Worse, if he decides that he should override the relay and raise 2NT to 3NT I will be playing it from the N hand a the opening lead will be a
. Not good.
So I am thinking that the range for 2NT after 2
- Pass - Pass should be high enough to include this hand.
The play was interesting, here are all four hands:
T6
A43
T72
JT852
KQ8753
9
975
KJ62
Q95
J43
K
Q9743
AJ42
QT8
AK86
A6
The opening lead was the
K (W does not know that declarer holds AJxx and dummy has the T), taken by the A, the
A is led, dropping the Q, and another
to the J with W pitching a small
. E wins with the Q and leads what? He no longer has a
, a
would go into dummy's T8, and a
is not going to succeed either. So a
, ducked, W wins the Q and gets out with a
. Declarer wins and leads a
. taken by W, so the
J is now good. E is out of
and throws a
on this trick.
Declarer will now be getting two
tricks, one
trick, three
tricks and two
tricks. Well, that's 8. If W leads a
we are up to 9, but W gets out with his third
. Now what?
It's an interesting squeeze position. Declarer cashes his
J and his last
. Nine tricks have no been played and everyone must come down to four cars . E has to save two
else the
T will drop the 9, promoting the 8. So he comes down to
KJ. But now a
to the ! and another ! puts E on lead holding only the
97, with
T8 on the board.
9 tricks. Not a contract anyone wants to be in.
I think 2
-Pass - Pass - 2NT - all pass is a reasonable auction, but I am not complaining about the result.