N-S vul, at Matchpoints, you hold as south: ♠AQ87 ♥- ♦QJ108752 ♣108

W      N           E       S

P       1♥         P            ?

What do you bid?

Here is a hand from the recent Winnipeg Sectional, Saturday morning. This type of hand is fairly frequent, and I have written about this theme before.

If you respond 1♠ what do you bid over 2♥? Or over 2♣? The problem is that you cannot bid diamonds now as it shows longer spades than diamonds, and it is game forcing. Nor can you bid 2♦ originally as you are too weak. Yes, it might work, but it might not.

Opposite a minimum opener the likely best contract is 3♦. The only way to get there is to respond 1NT, and over partner’s rebid, bid 3♦ which is to play. The key is that the 1NT limits your hand strength.

On the actual deal partner will bid 2NT. Now you have a whole new problem. The practical bid is 3NT. It might make it might not. The one problem is that you are playing it from the wrong side, as the only lead you fear, a club, will be going through partner’s hoped-for strength in that suit. A more scientific bid, and the one I would choose is 3♠. Now partner is involved in the decision making of the best place to play. Sure the opponents have extra information on how to defend, but on balance, I would make this descriptive bid. Let’s look at the full deal (hands rotated):

Some Norths might bid 3NT, down one. A better bid, even at matchpoints is 4♣. This is a cue bid, but also gives responder room to further describe his distribution. For example if South had five spades, he would rebid them. However over 4♣ South should bid 4♦, which North will raise to five for a clear top. Good bidding is its own reward.

Epilogue:This story does have a twist. My partner, obviously not a reader of my books and articles, bid 1♠. I raised to 3♠, as I thought my hand was much better suited to a spade contract than notrump. He bid game. On a trump lead he won, knocked out the ♦K, and made 11 tricks for a top.

Lessons to Learn

1)    With 17 HCPs and a five card suit, the South hand is too strong to open a 15-17 1NT. Open 1♥, and then rebid 2NT.

2)    With a weak hand with a four card major and a longer minor, it is usually best to skip the major and respond 1NT and then sign off in the minor over partners’ minimum rebid.

3)    Contrary to 1) above, I chose to exercise judgement, and bid what I thought was a better description of my hand, 3♠. This would be 100% clear if playing Flannery (which we were) as partner’s bid will usually be based on a five card suit, as I cannot have five hearts and four spades with a minimum opener.

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