bluecalm, on 2012-February-18, 10:42, said:
Playing "vanilla" 2/1 w/e that might be it looks like easy 2NT call.
I mean, I think systems where you can't say to partner: "hey, I have strong hand without 5-5 and 4card support to your suit, what do you think?" sucks big time but if I am somehow forced to play this I choose a bid which best describes my hand, so... :
a)if I bid 2D partner visualizes 12-17 and 5-4+, with average hand being about nice 13hcp
b)if I bid 2N partner visualizes 18-19 balanced with 5 hearts
c)if I bid 3D partner visualizes 5-5 and 18+hcp hand.
I think it's obvious b) is the best description of what I have.
Now, make the hand: AQx AQxxx AKxx x and it's time to eat your cards hoping TD assigns average...
Why does partner visualize 5-5 when you bid 3D? That is partners fault since I certainly didn't show that. I dislike 2N. Our hand is neither balanced, nor is it worth a 1H and 2N rebid, it's too strong ( lets be honest, with most 5332 17 count with a 5cM "everyone" opens 1H and rebids 2N to combine getting the hearts in with upgrading for the 5 card suit, and likewise somewhere between some and many 19 counts with 5 hearts are opened 2N if they're worth an upgrade depending on your style, so having a 5422 19 count is really heavy even with such a shitty heart suit).
Partner having short hearts is great for our slam chances in diamonds, it improves our Axxxx a lot. I do not see any downside in showing diamonds, you're really going to be unhappy if partner raises to 4D?
There seems to be a lot of treating 5422 with 5M and 4m as balanced recently on the forums, I don't get it, I prefer to show my suits. Yeah I get it with 4M and 5m when you will have rebid problems but 5422 is a suit oriented shape, not a NTy one.