[goingoren]

♠ A6
♥ A854
♦ JT97
♣AK3


I open one diamond planning to rebid 1NT over 1spade. My Partner responds 1h. I guess I should respond 2h? I actually responded 4h, but I think my hand is slightly too weak for that bid.

[goingoren]

with a 4-4 fit and my ace rich hand we should be able to make 4h a lot of the time even if partner is fairly weak (8 pts)

[mikeh]

I assume that your methods involve a weak 1N opening. While there are many, and many excellent, players here who are used to a weak notrump method, it is probably a good idea to spell these matters out in the OP, which would eliminate any comments such as 'why did you open 1♦?'

One of the implications of opening 1m in a weak notrump context is that when one raises a major suit response to the 2-level, one is usually (see later for a different approach) showing a good supporting hand.....either a distributional hand, with playing strength, or a strong 1N, since with balanced minimums one opens 1N.

Now, there are different schools of thought. For example, if you would raise to 2♥ with, say, x Axx KQxxx QJxx, then you have different concerns than if you required 4 card support for a raise...with the example hand you would bid 2♣ if 2♥ always promised 4 card support. A thorough discussion of the relative pros and cons of these schools of thought is beyond the scope of this post

In my weak 1N partnerships, we require 4 cards for a raise, meaning that we always have either significant extra playing strength or significant extra hcp for a single raise, and we would be very content with a 2♥ raise, since by system agreement it shows 15-17 balanced or 11-14+ unbalanced.

We reserve jumps to 3Major for very strong hands indeed: a good 17 balanced (not 4333, which we would tend to downgrade) or 18+ (or an unbalanced hand with fewer hcp but compensating playing strength)...a hand opposite which partner only passes if embarrassed by his response.....note that it is common expert practice to respond to 1m with as few as 3-4 hcp...I would never pass 1♦ with, say, xxx KJxxx x xxxx, and I doubt that many good players would.

You will see from this discussion that if you play weak 1N openings and require 4 cards to raise a major suit response, then a 2♥ raise is enough.

If you would raise on an unbalanced minimum with 3 card support, then you have a problem. You can't safely use the same raise to show a very bad 3 card hand AND a 16 count hand with 4 card support and lots of controls.....partner simply can't make an informed decision when your hand is that poorly defined.

So if you will raise on 3 cards, you have to jump with the balanced strong hand with 4 card support. Bear in mind that the weak hand with 3 card support is fairly uncommon, and so it seems to me to be a very bad idea to use this method...you are using a very useful bid (the 2♥ raise) for very infrequent hands, which can always (tho with some costs) be shown by rebidding your original suit or your side 4 card suit.

Whichever method you use, 4♥ is a huge overbid. It seems from your post that you overlooked the middle ground: 3♥.

If 2♥ is systemically unavailable, then I suggest that either you switch to using 2♥ as 'strong 1N with 4 card support or unbalanced opening with 4 card support' or you use 3♥ to show this particular hand.

If you actually play a method in which 1N shows 15-17 (or 14-16 or 6-18, etc) then you should ignore all of the above, and remember to open 1N instead

[mikeh]

 goingoren, on 2015-June-08, 17:06, said:

with a 4-4 fit and my ace rich hand we should be able to make 4h a lot of the time even if partner is fairly weak (8 pts)

stop thinking that way!

Partner may have a far worse hand, and when he has a decent hand, he is quite capable of working that out. Your job isn't to take a wild guess at what he has. He is the one who knows what he has. Tell him what you have and let him make the decision.

As per my earlier post, you can show him that you hold about 16 hcp with 4 hearts (or equivalent playing strength) and if he has a decent 8 count, he will bid game.

Now, if he isn't experienced enough, and so doesn't bid game, the worst thing you can do is to keep on making all the decisions, based on guesses. How is he or she to learn unless you give him or her the opportunity...to do the right thing or to do the wrong thing and then learn from the mistake? Meanwhile, if you continue to try to bid your partner's values, you won't learn how to be a good bidder, and you won't attract or keep good players as your partners.

A jump to 4H shows a huge hand...it forces to game opposite a bad 6 count. It should be based on a good 18 count or better, not a mediocre 16 (because of the weak diamonds....one would prefer one's hcp to be more concentrated in one's long suits)

You need to be worried not about missing game but about getting too high when your partner, looking at an opening hand, decides that slam is a good bet....your hand will be very disappointing.

[nige1]

 goingoren, on 2015-June-08, 17:05, said:

♠ A 6 ♥ A 8 5 4 ♦ J T 9 7 ♣ A K 3
I open one diamond planning to rebid 1NT over 1spade. My Partner responds 1h. I guess I should respond 2h? I actually responded 4h, but I think my hand is slightly too weak for that bid.

IMO 3♥ = 10, 2♥ = 8. 4♥ = 6.
If you might have raised to 2♥ with 11-12 HCP, then it's reasonable to limit-raise to 3♥ with a good 16 HCP (John McLaren's "Ace-extra test") but 4♥ is a slight exaggeration.

[wank]

you should specify your system as you evidently play non-standard methods (obviously this hand would be opened a 15-17 1NT if available). everyone will assume you play a 15-17 NT, 5 card majors, and 2 over 1 game force if you don't say anything.