[kiwinacol]

Hello all, playing 2/1 with 2C* check back on invitational hand:

East (dealer) S Q854 H AK4 D - C KJ9843

West S AT9 H 6 D KQ7432 C Q76

our bidding:

1C 1D, 1S 2C*, 2D** 3D, 3NT

2D** forced on weak hands. Is this just a bad hand for our system or is there a better sequence?

thanks, kiwinacol

[Zelandakh]

Hard to say without knowing your system - on RR, what would 2♦, 2NT, 3♣ and 3♦ have been? On the third round, what are 2♥, 2NT and 3♣?

[kenberg]

I am not sure if Zel covered this (I don't know what RR means) but I ask what about the 1S rebid. In a Walsh style this pretty much promises some shape, in which case a 3C call over 2D might be best.

I don't play xyz so I am speaking from ignorance here, bit it does seem like 3D places partner in a difficult spot. You have a stiff heart and the opps have not come in (on an auction that began 1C-1D), making it likely that partner has at least a couple of them. If we can assume that he has five clubs, then we have a fit in clubs and we probably don't have a fit in diamonds.

This all assumes the spade bid shows five, or more, clubs. With four clubs and four spades he could have rebid 1H with four hearts, or he could have rebid 1NT holding three hearts (and thus two diamonds) .

I'm not claiming 3C is a great bid, but if it shows invit values and a club fit it seems to give partner more of an opportunity to find the right answer.

Btw, is it clear that 5C is a great contract? We have five club tricks, two hearts, a ruff, the spade A, a developable diamond, that's ten. There are decent chances for 11, but if partner passes 3C this might not be bad. Probably better than 3NT where you have 9 developable tricks but the opps are likely to take 5 first.

[ggwhiz]

I don't play these methods either but depending on your methods over a 1nt rebid by opener, 1♠ instead virtually guarantees 5+ clubs for many including myself.

That makes the 3♦ bid a particularly bad idea. Nobody I know goes out of their way to bypass 3nt at mp's. So 3♦ is the problem but I don't know the answer.

[steve2005]

3♣ inviting in known fit assuming 1♠ promises 5♣ seems better

[Zelandakh]

 kenberg, on 2016-January-28, 10:59, said:

I don't know what RR means

In this case it was meant as Responder's Rebid.