Another post about super-aggressive bidding and precipitate decisions about the Contract
(I've switched the directions by 90 degrees)
EW Game, Dealer EastNorth A1092
AQ6
J5
AK72
South 743
KJ92
AQ6
J105
All the participants in this match were playing 2/1. At the
other table, the bidding was passed round to North, who opened 1
, South responded with a 2NT limit bid and North signed off in 3NT. 11 tricks. NEXT!
At
our table
South opened this hand with 1
and the bidding proceeded:
South North1
1
1NT 2
2
6
All Pass
Declarer found West with the
Qxx, but the
King was offside and there was no way to get rid of all of the
losers, so 6
was -1. My point on this hand is this:
North's 2
New Minor Forcing isn't game-forcing as such. That gives North something of a problem over 2
, I concede, because 2NT and 3
will
not be forcing (NMF is normally forcing to 2NT but no further, in my experience). I do feel the leap to 6
, however, is precipitous.
Most people are used to Minor suit openings potentially being less than 4-card length when you're playing any natural system that uses 5-card Majors. North here has
assumed South has 4+ Clubs with no evidence to back it up. Although it's
possible that South might pass 3
, I feel it's
unlikely, fr the following reason:
- If North doesn't have 5-card Spades, they can't have 4-card Hearts (or they'd respond 1 over 1 ), so why are they using NMF?
- The only reason has to be that they have a strong responding hand and needed to create a forcing sequence.
For that reason, I feel that North should show the Club support, confident that Partner ought to be able to work this out. Now South simply rebids 3NT and we're all happy.
Natural bidding provides a wealth of opportunities for constructive bidding. If you are playing a system such as 2/1, Std American, or Acol, I feel that time spent considering situations like the above, and discussing them with regular partners, is
time well spent. It's probably going to teach you more about bidding theory and be more productive and helpful in improving your partnership than spending half an hour agreeing to play McGruder's 2nd Variation on Extended Stayman (or whatever - you get the point).