Opening 1
or passing is a judgment call. It has something to do with agreements, such as what your partner can figure on as the auction develops, but mostly it is a judgment call. I mean to distinguish this from the pass of the 3 !c rebid. That's a matter of agreement, or as it turned out, lack of agreement. Let me elaborate because I think that this is important. There will always be hands where I would have chosen a different call than partner's. We each use our best judgment and there is seldom much to be gained from questioning partner's choice. S/he did what s/he thought was right. Agreements are entirely another matter. A bid is or is not forcing, a bid is or is not natural. Partners want to be on the same page with this.
A crucial issue is that there are a lot of conventions that have names, and the names often mean different things to different people. This is just a fact. If two people are going to play together regularly they can, over time, resolve some of these ambiguities. If you play online with someone you don't know, or barely know, then there will be clashes of understanding. Paramount is to have a sense of humor about it. But also it is good to be aware of the possibility of misunderstanding and try to avoid ambiguous situations. Accept that many online auctions will be ambiguous, so try for the clearest choice even if it is not optimal. An imperfect bud that will be approximately understood by partner is much better than a perfectly descriptive bid that your if your partner misinterprets that perfect bid.
You say "I just didn't think that was the norm as it decidedly is not what I was taught. " But there are different teachers.
Here is Larry Cohen:
https://www.larryco.com/bridge-learning-center/detail/435He lays out the 2/1 gf beginnings, including 1
- 2
. Does this settle the matter? Not at all. As mentioned, Mike Lawrence on his 2/1 disk allows that it can be done either way (I think there is a second edition of his disk, if so this might have changed). But if LC says 1
- 2
is gf, then it is reasonable to expect that many, when they say that they play 2/1, are including this among the gf auctions.
Agreements have to be reviewed. And reviewed again. Partner and I played in a Swiss match at the Baltimore Regional a few days ago. Since we had responsibilities to the other pair on our team I brought up a few agreements for review:
"1NT on your right, you bid a DONT 2
, X on your left, I bid 2
. What is it" I asked. "Asking for my other suit" he said. No. Without the X, then 2
is asking for the other suit. After the X, then XX asks for the other suits, 2
shows hearts. Now in fact Larry Cohen says this is right, and since he was the inventor or maybe co-inventor of DONT it seems that the default is to play XX as asking, and 2
as natural. But whether LC agrees with me is not the main point, the point is that partner and I agree. That particular auction did not arise on Tuesday, but it will. We had discussed it before, we discussed it Tuesday, and it is probably wise to discuss it again. And write it down. Playing online what would the 2 H! mean? Beats me.
Time for a story. A number of years ago I had a partner, now deceased, who held very strong opinions on many issues. She liked to play Flannery so we played Flannery, and played it her way. Another of her partners told me that when the two of them were playing at a National event they got into an argument over the correct way to play Flannery. Well, Flannery was still alive at the time, and was at the tournament, so they went over and asked him. Flannery agreed with the woman who was telling me this story. As they left, her partner said "That's just one man's opinion".
Playing 2/1 does 1
- 2
-2
promise six cards? Does 1
- 2
-2
promise a more than minimal hand? Does 1
- 2
-2 NT promise some values in both unbid suits? My preferred agreements are No, Yes, Yes, but I would not bet heavily that a randomly chosen 2/1 player agrees with this. Note that if 2
promises six card and if 2NT promises values in both unbid suits, then there will be hands where, after 1
- 2
you will have to leave the table say if you hold 3=5=2=3 shape and your spades are xxx, because any call you make violates your system.
So discuss and agree where yo can, relax when it goes wrong. As it will.