[mycroft]

Caveat: this is partner's hand. I am *not* of the belief that "I was obviously right, what did she do wrong?"; I just don't find the decisions of the other hand that interesting. But note the first question; my mistake might have happened already!

---

• What has partner shown?
  
• What's the plan?

[jillybean]

What are your systems ? Does 2♦ deny a 4cM, is 2♥ shape or stopper, if stopper why not 2n/2d?

[mycroft]

Those are all good questions.

I would assume that 2♦ denied a 4cM. Oh, and after 1♦-2♦, (only) 2NT or 3♦ are passable with just a LR. After that, you're on your own. Hence question 1 - what has partner shown?

[jillybean]

I don't like your system, your partner has diamonds, hearts and a hand that could play nt. gf but too good for an immediate 3nt opposite an unlimited hand.
If you can't bid a forcing 2n or 3♦ all roads lead to 3nt, 3♠ with control is terrible.
You need nebulous 2♣

[mike777]

 mycroft, on 2026-May-14, 17:29, said:

Caveat: this is partner's hand. I am *not* of the belief that "I was obviously right, what did she do wrong?"; I just don't find the decisions of the other hand that interesting. But note the first question; my mistake might have happened already!

---

• What has partner shown?
  
• What's the plan?

Prefer to start with 2C, let's find out if partner is balanced or has real long D.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

standard was, that all bids below 3m dont show add. strength, i.e. 3NT would show a spade stop
and a non min opener.
I may be wrong, but there seems to be a tendency towards, that all bids except 3m (and 2NT)
now show non. min hands.
I would make a quant. move with 4NT.
As far as I see it, a diamond fit is not yet certain.

As always, the NT range matters, how light / low you go with your openings, I would assume, that
p accepts with 15/16.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[mycroft]

I would argue that 2♣ may be a better first call as well. But this is what happened.

2♣ (for us, NAT GF) will

Spoiler

get you 2NT. Feel free to continue (but make clear what 2NT vs 3NT means to you).

P_Marlowe:

Spoiler

4NT gets you 6NT.

Note again: I am not looking to ATB here - first time partnership, although we have decades of experience playing against each other, so we had pretty good feel of each other's style. I won't explain the issue yet, because, well, that's what I'm trying to work out; but it's not ATB.

[mike777]

2C solves so many issues, seems clear.

If opener disagrees what a 2Nt rebid by them means, then you know what needs to be discussed.


For me over a 2NT rebid pick 3NT or 4NT

[P_Marlowe]

mycroft, on 2026-May-15, 13:31, said:

I would argue that 2♣ may be a better first call as well.
<snip>

Peoble really like auctions that start with

1D - 2C.

if I recall the posts correctly that are featuring this start.

I fail to see the adv. with the given hand, some may even play,
that a 2D response does not even promise a 5th diamond, may even
be based on a bal. hand with 3+.

[mycroft]

Sorry to be unclear. I want *you* to tell *me* what you're taking 2NT to mean when you continue the auction, so we can understand why you make your call.

Again, I'm not trying to fix our partnership for the future; the point isn't even "our partnership" at all.

[mike777]

2Nt rebid by opener shows a minimum balanced NT opener. A weak NT type hand.
Yes you may not have a spade stop, don't care.
2C does not promise a club stop, don't care.
1D does not promise a diamond stop.


Nothing complicated or tricky.

[mycroft]

Spoiler

Right, then for you, the auction will go 1♦-2♣; 3NT. But I bet a confusion here explains a couple of results.

[mikeh]

I only play inverted minors if we can play something other than the nearly hopeless ‘standard’ methods, but that’s irrelevant since your problem is that you’re stuck guessing what’s going on rather than knowing what’s going on.

I’ll assume a strong notrump method, since one has to have some basis for guessing.

If I had to fill in for you at the critical point, here’s what I’m thinking:

2H said very little. Clearly has a heart stopper. Since 3N later has to show a spade stopper as well, I’m guessing that your partner probably thinks that a 2N bid would deliver some values in all 3 side suits or that she has short clubs.

What do I think she thinks my 3C bid shows? I think she thinks it shows a stopper, denies a spade stopper and could still be a limit raise. This is because 2H could be virtually any strength. Gotta love this method…we’ve each taken two constructive calls in an uncontested auction and both of us have no idea how strong partner is or what their shape is.

So, if 3C could be limit raise strength, clearly she has a hand that would accept a limit raise. Hurray! Ok…that was too quick. We still have almost no idea other than that she thinks she will probably take 9 tricks in 3N after you show a club stopper. But she might be almost any shape, including 4=4=3=2,unless we guess that she’d bid 2N with that, ignoring the club issue.

Opposite a 3N bid made by someone who thinks I might have only invitational values, I have slam interest

But…could she have a good 14 with long diamonds, so hoping to take 9 tricks even with a combined 23 count or so…or does this show a hand in the 1N range but with which she’s chosen 1D, maybe because she has 6 diamonds or a stiff club or didn’t like opening 1N with, say, 4=2=5=2?

Things aren’t getting any better, are they? Five bids get us to 3N and we are still guessing at just about everything a coherent method would have told us.

OK, enough ranting….what next? Seems reasonable to me to bid 4N. If this is keycard please let me leave the table now. If, as it surely must be, this is quantitative then imo it’s a perfect description of my hand and, finally, one member of the partnership will know the important aspects of partner’s hand.