[jillybean]

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Does anyone play this where 2nt shows either a balanced minimum or 18-19?
If so, please could you explain your follow ups with strong hands. Thx.

[Gerardo]

Usually 2NT : 3NT : 4NT
But any bid over 3NT would do.

Over a different bid, usually jump to 4NT (quant).
If a fit is discovered, start control bids instead.

[P_Marlowe]

The 2/1 bidder will assume a min opener, but opener will act with the max. opener
over a possible sign of by the 2/1 bidder.

[jillybean]

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[P_Marlowe]

Pass.

This is a quantitative auction.
You have 13, p has 18-19, this makes 31-32 combined, you target 6NT with a combined 33HCP.
Is it possible, that you miss a making slam, sure, that is live.

[pescetom]

I'm less pessimistic than P_Marlowe here, I would have gone for it at IMPS.
The known 5-2 honoured fit improves the odds.
I would expect a good partner to have bid 4♣ rather than 4NT with ♣Axx, so am less concerned about diamonds.

[pescetom]

 jillybean, on 2026-September-30, 09:46, said:

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Is 5♣ Gerber here?

[mw64ahw]

pescetom, on 2026-September-30, 11:17, said:

Is 5♣ Gerber here?

I've seen responses to 4N Quantitative as per Blackwood

[apollo1201]

 jillybean, on 2026-September-30, 06:55, said:

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Does anyone play this where 2nt shows either a balanced minimum or 18-19?
If so, please could you explain your follow ups with strong hands. Thx.

Played an almost similar in a non-2/1 context so it was 15-17 (you risked a sentence to prison opening 1NT with a 5-cd M) or 18-19. Starting a GF as responder has 11 at least.
Over the 3NT you bid 4NT with a doubleton C, 4C with 4 (5422 hand, rare) and start a cue bid with 3.
If partner does not rebid 3NT you can layer make further noise.
It happened only once at that time! For a tie in 6NT lol

[mikeh]

pescetom, on 2026-September-30, 11:04, said:

I'm less pessimistic than P_Marlowe here, I would have gone for it at IMPS.
The known 5-2 honoured fit improves the odds.
I would expect a good partner to have bid 4♣ rather than 4NT with ♣Axx, so am less concerned about diamonds.

The imp odds for slam bidding are precisely the same as at mps. In both cases, you want to bid slams that have a greater than 50% chance of making, avoid slams that are at all less than 50% and don’t care one way or the other if the slam is exactly 50%.

So it makes little sense, to me, to assert that you’d bid on at imps and pass at mps.

On the actual hand, we just don’t know enough to assess probabilities. In our partnership style, do we think we have any extras for our 2/1 gf? If yes, move. If no, pass.

I love my club Jack and the spade queen is a great card but partner did not open 2N, as he might with a great 5332 19 count and the rest of my hand is minimum.

So I’d pass, but I wouldn’t criticize bidding. It’s close but I think I need just a tad more.

Oh, and I’d never respond as if to keycard here. I don’t want to give LHO a chance to double for the lead nor not to double, allowing RHO to draw an inference. Neither is likely to be costly but, even so, I’m not giving them a chance. Looking at my hand, it’s highly likely that opener has at least 3 aces.plus, if I’m bidding, it’s because of cards that a keycard response doesn’t reflect. But I’m passing. It helps that in my partnerships we open all 11 counts (and some 10s) so I’m truly minimum for a gf response.

[P_Marlowe]

Partnership style certainly plays a role, e.g. the tendency to upgrade into a 2NT opener,
my reg. p loves to do this, which means, his 18/19 hand will not be super max.
Also I would ask the question, why did you respond 2C instead of bidding 3NT?
If you play a multiple meaning 2C bid, it is a good idea, to take as many hand types out
as you can.

[jillybean]

Playing this variable style, the 2NT rebid is either a minimum 12(11)-14 or a flat 18-19.
With 18-19 and shape, would opener describe their hand further?

[P_Marlowe]

jillybean, on 2026-September-30, 13:10, said:

Playing this variable style, the 2NT rebid is either a minimum 12(11)-14 or a flat 18-19.
With 18-19 and shape, would opener describe their hand further?

If he has 54, why did he not make a jump shift, or a reverse?
If he has shape and the strength, but bids 2NT he missed the chance to show his shape.

Opener could make a bid like 6C suggesting to play 6C instead of 6NT, which would imply
a strong 3 carder and a doubleton somewhere.

[jillybean]

P_Marlowe, on 2026-September-30, 13:13, said:

If he has 54, why did he not make a jump shift, or a reverse?
If he has shape and the strength, but bids 2NT he missed the chance to show his shape.

Opener could make a bid like 6C suggesting to play 6C instead of 6NT, which would imply
a strong 3 carder and a doubleton somewhere.

We are back to the debate of a "reverse" after a 2/1 showing extra strength or just shape

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A jump shift after a 2/1 removes a lot of bidding space.

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[P_Marlowe]

#1 I belong to the school, that req. add strength to make a reverse, but it does not really matter,
if you have 54 and 18/19 you still want to find a fit, the 18/19 facing a 2/1 will take care of
it self, you can always blast

#2 your 2nd auction can be played in various ways, a common one, would be splinter, showing a club fit,
but even if it is 5/4 and showing the strength, that you told your story
at least you are on the 3 level, the alternative is starting to bid your suit on the 5 level
Preserving space is all fine, ..., but getting your story across is more important

#3 opener has to decide, if he wants to sell his hand as bal. or unbal., if he cant decide, he can
make a waiting bid, 2NT sells his hand as bal., a new suit sells his hand as unbal., rebidding
his suit ..., if you want this bid to show 6+, find / invent a bid that says, tell me more, if you
go this way, it will get a bit messy, because you will at least loose one suit, that can no longer
be shown direct, ..., peoble play it, if you are willing to go artificial fine, it solves problems,
introduces other problems

[P_Marlowe]

On a side note: i think I recall, that you "only" need 32HCP to have a fair chance of making 6NT,
but I think those 32HCP 6NT hands req. some 44 fits.
Given that p opened a major, he will be 5332 most of the time, i.e. we wont have those side fits,
but I may be wrong, this is something, that could be simulated.

[mike777]

 jillybean, on 2026-September-30, 13:28, said:

We are back to the debate of a "reverse" after a 2/1 showing extra strength or just shape

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A jump shift after a 2/1 removes a lot of bidding space.

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I don't know how strong your 2/1 bid is.
For me if opener has 18+ and responder makes a 2/1, we are investigating a grand slam. A very rare auction.

Do you have a specific hand you are concerned about?

For me your hand one promises a non minimum hand.

Your hand two I just would not do. I prefer to play it as a splinter but who knows
I don't want to confuse the issue.

[mikeh]

jillybean, on 2026-September-30, 13:28, said:

We are back to the debate of a "reverse" after a 2/1 showing extra strength or just shape

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A jump shift after a 2/1 removes a lot of bidding space.

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Opener should always try to find a fit in a constructive auction. It doesn’t matter whether one requires any extra values for tye ‘reverse’…1H 2C 2S, unless one is playing that 2H promises 6. If so, it’s silly to require extra strength to show spades. I hope the reasons for that are obvious.

Obviously, with 18-19 one has (far) more than just some extras so 2S would be automatic.

As for 1S 2C 3H, I think you’ll find that it’s common to play that as shortness with 4+ clubs. We don’t require extras…indeed, we specify that the splinter denies extras. One benefit is that it allows responder to bid 3N even with straps of his own without fear that he’ll miss a good club slam.

[jillybean]

Now we're getting into the detail. Does 2M promise 6? Does 2NT promise any extras? Does a jump shift after a 2/1 exist, or is it a splinter?

This gives me a good starting point for discussion before I can understand and accept the invitation to play this method.

[mike777]

 jillybean, on 2026-September-30, 14:50, said:

Now we're getting into the detail. Does 2M promise 6? Does 2NT promise any extras? Does a jump shift after a 2/1 exist, or is it a splinter?

This gives me a good starting point for discussion before I can understand and accept the invitation to play this method.

I would certainly start with asking
does rebidding the major after the 2/1 promise 6?

If at the club, they answer of course, what else, that answers a lot of questions.