Second Best

21st April – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.
Most pairs I believe ended up in the heart game on the deal shown below and in truth there is not much to choose between that and 3NT. But I have a slight leaning towards the latter myself and I think the bidding should/might go as shown.


West
North
East
South
1H
2D
Dbl
No
3C
No
3NT
End


West is full value for a 2NT bid after the 2D intervention – which is NOT Jacoby after intervention – but I would hate to think that the spade suit might stay forever hidden if East has a 4-5-2-2 minimum type hand. So I can see no harm in making a Sputnik type double first. Opener’s rebid of 3C would then elicit 3NT from West and East should have no reason to insist on the major suit game. People are always content to play in 3NT with a long running minor but less so with a major; I think it’s a psychological sort of thing.

2 comments:

  1. Dave
    we would bid 2 nt as west after the 2d south bid. Wouldn't east have a better idea of his partners holding?
    Chris S :)

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  2. I think the thing you have to bear in mind Chris is that you lose nothing by doubling to show the spades first.If opener rebids 2H then you can bid 2NT showing the balanced 11 count but with a spade suit as well. Twice the value for money. Say partner had:
    S Q 10 x x H A K Q x x D x x C J x then he would pass 2NT if you bid that over 2D when 4S would be virtually cold.

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