[sceptic]

I watched this hand being bid, can you answer some questions for me as I am struggling to understand this

Thank you

Scoring: IMP

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West North East South

 -     Pass  1NT   Pass
 2♦    Pass  2♥    Pass
 2NT   Pass  3♥    Pass
 4♥    Pass  Pass  Pass
 

1/. Why would you bid 2NT here not 3 clubs (someone commented, after I asked) that they did not have enough points to warrant the 3 club bid, I thought 8 hcp, 5/4 dist and a singleton was good enough (IMHO)

2/. The lead was a spade. would this have been different if it had been bid, transfer, then the second suit

[helene_t]

1) 3♣ is gameforcing. This agreement makes a lot of sense: Finding a 4-4 fit in clubs is mainly for slam puporses, it's unlikely that you would consider 5♣ if you wouldn't consider 6♣ also. When you have a 5-5 invitational you would like to bid a non-forcing 3♣ but those hands are less frequent than the slamish hands.

I don't think the West hand is worth a GF. If there's a misfit, the singleton is a liability rather than an asset.

[Codo]

1. I had troubles to bid the West hand, because 3 ♣ had been game forcing for me too and 2 NT with a singelton is not what I want to bid, so I had passed. But I do understand their approach.

2. I had lead a high diamond against both ways of bidding.
If rho has a known two suiter, I better try to cash my tricks and if he has a hand with 5 Hearts and just invitational values without a fit but enough for game after pd showed minimum with a fit, he surely has at least one shortness again, so I would like to see dummy too.

[cherdano]

What Helene said.

About the lead I don't know. To me it looks like South has an obvious diamond lead in any case, so I have no idea what he would come up with on a different auction.

[EricK]

West has valued his hand as follows: If partner has ♥ support I want to have a crack at game (4♥); but if he doesn't, I only want to be in game (3NT) if he is maximum. This is not an unreasonable view to take. If the hands fit well, 4♥ may well make opposite a minimum opener, but if they are misfitting, partner will need more than 15 to make game good.

[the hog]

Wayne, the 3C bid would be a gf. 2NT is invitational. After an invitational bid East signed off in 3H and West bid 4H anyway. It is totally clear that West has absolutely no idea what he is doing. After the failure to make a superaccept, I would pass 2H.
(Actually I just looked at the lead. Clearly South is clueless as well; a top D lead is obvious, leading to an easy 1 off.)

[kenberg]

I would not be so tough on the players. W can figure on 23 combined highs, so it really comes down to what to make of the stiff spade. Ruffing in the long hand does not usually produce tricks but it does give control while developing tricks. And there are ten tricks here if the opponents don't take four first, although it's true the tenth trick is on a successful finesse. With a vulnerable imp game is at stake, I don't fault W that much.

As to the lead: When you have an AKxx and you don't start with the ace, you never win the post mortem. Still, most of the points are to the opening leader's right, the game rates to be close, and it is perfectly possible that the lead of the ace would be followed by the display of a dummy with short diamonds instead of short spades, allowing a ruffing finesse for the tenth trick.

I am not saying I would have led a passive spade, but I would go easy on a partner who did.

[Tola18]

I agree new suit would be GF - often mild slameseeker. That said, I had met decent players who use new suit as merely good invite to GF. So this idea isnt that funny and therefore the question justifable.

[helene_t]

Dennis Ottervanger (very good Dutch bridge teacher) suggests playing 3♣ as primarily a one-suiter with a club feature, inviting for game. But even then, this hand will not satisfy. You need six hearts since you will play 3♥ if opener rejects the invite.

[kenrexford]

In case anyone cares, this type of hand has prompted one of my partners to insist that we use 2♠ in this auction to show any unbalanced heart invite. Having a fith club would be nice, though.

The parallel spade auction starts with 2♣, then 2♠ after any response (except 2♠ of course).

In either auction, 2NT asks for the second suit. The up-side is that it allows a two-way two-suiter structure, to handle the game invitational unbalanced hands. The downsides are that you cannot play at 2♠ with 5♥/4♠ when invitational and that you cannot play at 2NT either.

Although I have only been playing this for a short while, it seems to work decently.