Jeff:

Forgive me — because I never get involved in bidding problems, but don’t people still play Flannery??? It would go 2D P 3C and you
would luck into the right strain!

No need to ask for forgiveness, Judy. I am sure that many players who play Flannery would say “WTP?”

I actually have a blog idea in mind about 2D openings. 2D openings seem to be each player’s favorite toy. Whether the treatment is Flannery, Mexican, Multi, or weak two, an afficionado can illustrate hands why their favored use of the toy is best. I prefer weak two, and when I get the chance will present my illustration. On the subject hand, for sure, I wish we had agreed to use Flannery.

Getting to clubs as a strain should not be the problem on the subject hand (although the actual result suggests otherwise!); getting to the right level of clubs might be. Game is on opposite many hands with a diamond control and some modicum of club help.

4C is a torture bid and I don’t see any reason to ever do this without discussion. I can really only think of one hand type where it might be useful, something like like xx Kx xx AKxxxxx. How many hands couldn’t game force before but can invite slam now? The above hand is probably a game force, but 1NT is not unreasonable, and has play for 6 opposite this 2H rebid: Kx AQJxxx Ax xx. I’d much rather play this bid DNE than what I suggested, though. Anyway, strange bids are forcing, and I would not have passed.

On your actual hand, I would make a weak jump shift if that were my agreement. 0-7 I think is the normal range for a 3-level wjs. If you think this hand is worth more than that, then you bid 3C over 2H.

Wouldn’t the “Kaplan Inverson” (Over 1H, 1S shows a forcing notrump with 0-4 spades, 1N shows 5+ spades) solve this problem AND still leave 2D available for whatever you want? Of course the ACBL has deemed this a mid chart convention (too confusing ?!?!). However the auction would proceed 1H – 1S; 1N (Flannery hand) – 2C to play (you can rebid them as needed without showing extra strength)

Frank,

Is that what the 1NT rebid by opener would mean, if playing Kaplan Inversion? I had assumed that a 1NT rebid by opener would show a “weak notrump” with five hearts, thus allowing for 1NT to be the final contract.

Both possibilities: a heart raise and long clubs can be illogical depending on how you look at it:

(1) How does hand goes from being worth an invitation raise to 3H at best to a slam try because of a sixth heart? What’s wrong with 3H or 4H? So, 4C can not be a raise in hearts.

(2) Conversely, how can a hand that was too weak to bid 2C go beyond 3NT with long clubs after opener shows a minimum hand? What’s wrong with 3C? 4C can not be long clubs.

You are looking at the problem using the lens of #1. Your partner is looking at it using the lens of #2. One of you is right and the other is wrong. Good luck figuring out who is what.

Just don’t bid 4C.

In light of what happened at the table, I think the commenters who, without saying so, voted for Option 4 (“partner is nuts”) are correct. I wish that I had rebid 3C and not 4C, which put partner under interpretation pressure.

But I think the bridge logic leans strongly toward 4C meaning the long clubs option and not the heart support option. While I think the auction has foreclosed either 4H or 3NT as a possible contract, hasn’t the auction directed partner toward a possible contract of 5C? That eighth club is a trick, afterall, and not expected after a rebid of 3C. Partner might own the SA, the DA, and a good enough club holding to limit us to one club loser. If he has one more trick (say, the HA, DK, or SQ), 5C has good play, I think. (AQx, Qxxxxxx, Ax, Qx is one example.)

An auction that I thought might be analogous is something like 1S-1NT forcing-2C-3H. There, 3H would show longer hearts than rebidding 2H, right?

Personally speaking I would have passed your hand! With 9 diamonds and even strength someone would have protected and you can then bid clubs showing a weak hand with lots of clubs. Your hand COULD be marvellous with the right hand opposite – but have you ever known partner to hold the right cards?

(My partner and I play a forcing 1NT over a major – but the hand could be a weak minor or show trump support. On our system the bidding would have gone 1H : 1N : 2C : Pass – but prepared to bid to 4C in a competitive auction. (In case your’e wondering opener can rebid 2D with a weak 6-card major – just above a weak 2 or rebid the major with a strong 6-card suit – just below an Acol 2) )

I can picture hands where I’d bid 4C as a mild heart slam try. With the right fit x Qxx xxx AKxxxx could easily make slam opposite a minimum heart rebid. I don’t think that hand is quite an initial 2/1, but that 6th heart means you’ll always want to be in game, so, since there’s no chance of confusion (!), bid 4C on the way to see if you got lucky.

Well, I would have treated that seven loser hand with trump support already known as a game forcing raise at my first turn, since the hand can make game opposite a minimum hand with only five hearts, too. (Say, xxxx, AKJxx, Ax, xx.)

I am not suggesting that, without having discussed this with partner, my choice of bidding 4C at my second turn was a wise choice — I should have avoided any potential confusion by just bidding 3C and not worrying about that choice possibly missing a good 5C contract — but had I discussed the meaning of such bids with partner, I would argue strongly for the jump bid in a lower suit to be natural and very long in the bid suit. I see a need for that meaning, but no need for the 4C call to show heart support. At best, the knowledge of partner’s sixth heart would convert a responder’s hand from a game invite to a game force, but not to a slam invite.

A mostly superfluous aside … but if partner did interpret the 4C to be showing heart support, how certain can one be that he would take the 4C call to be showing club length as opposed to a splinter showing club shortness?

Jeff

I’d expect partner to go to 4H with the opening hand you show, but that, I think, is more style than anything. Give light openers my invitational bids tend to be stronger.

I’d always play splinters only by agreement, so at least on that score there should be no misunderstanding unless someone forgot what they were playing.

Jeff,

In its original form this is correct (and 1S denied as many as 4 spades). I used a modified version where 1N shows 5+ spades and 1S shows 0-4 spades. Over 1N opener raises with 3+ spades and over 1S, opener shows spades with 4 or more by rebidding 1N showing a minimum (a la Flannery), or 2S with reversing values. Without the right number of spades, opener responds to either bid as he would to a forcing no trump.