[shevek]

Weak only Multi

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EW a newish partnership who simply agreed to play "Standard Multi, no strong option."
There don't seem to be universally accepted continuations here.
2M & 3M are clearly p/c.
East thought 4♥ the same, while admitting 2NT would have been safer.
West in turn wondered whether East might even have assumed that they were playing "4♣ = transfer to your major, 4♦ = bid your major" a neat idea but not widely known and not mentioned.

[Free]

expert standard: 4♥ = to play (4♣ = transfer M ; 4♦ = bid your M)
club standard: 4♥ = P/C (here at least, dunno about other countries)

Know your CHO.

[Hanoi5]

It's a terrible opening bid for a vulnerable dealer. And of course if you're playing in a new partnership use K.I.S.S.

[FrancesHinden]

 Free, on 2011-September-06, 08:32, said:

expert standard: 4♥ = to play (4♣ = transfer M ; 4♦ = bid your M)
club standard: 4♥ = P/C (here at least, dunno about other countries)

Know your CHO.

Oh dear, I play 4H as P/C, I can't be an expert.
I've never seen the merit in 4D = bid your M, why take up an extra round of bidding just to ensure the contract is certain to be wrong-sided?

FWIW we once had the auction (starting with the opponents) 2D x 4H P P x all pass for +2300 from a 4-0 fit.
The main ATB was to agree to play a convention without discussing it - or maybe not to know that 4H can be played either way. If East knew this was a possibility then indeed he should have started with 2NT (assuming they had agreed the continuations).

p.s. what a horrible red weak two

[sfi]

 FrancesHinden, on 2011-September-06, 15:20, said:

I've never seen the merit in 4D = bid your M, why take up an extra round of bidding just to ensure the contract is certain to be wrong-sided?

That's why you have 4C as well - so responder can get either hand to play it. The main advantage is to be able to bid 4 of responder's major naturally. How important is that over the double versus a natural 4C/D and giving 4th hand a second chance to bid? That's less clear.

[Free]

 FrancesHinden, on 2011-September-06, 15:20, said:

I've never seen the merit in 4D = bid your M, why take up an extra round of bidding just to ensure the contract is certain to be wrong-sided?

The point is to right-side it. Usually responder will use 4♣, but there are exceptions where opener may play better. A simple example is Axx-Axx-Axx-Axxx (unless you bid 3NT with that ofcourse), whatever suit LHO leads, it may give away a trick. There's absolutely no reason to play ourselves.

[Zelandakh]

Over a mini-multi I usually like to play all of 3NT, 4C and 4D as preempt extensions asking Opener to bid their suit but with 4m suggesting a possible 5 level contract in the corresponding major. That still leaves 4M available as natural and I always considered it important to have these natural jumps available. It makes me somewhat nervous to hear someone as good as Frances disagrees that 4M natural is necessary...

[FrancesHinden]

Depends what you mean by 'necessary'.... I agree you would like to be able to play in 4 of responder's major, but I can still get there, it just takes me another round of bidding (I have to start with 2NT)