[Antig2]

recently I played a bridge game with the following auction: My partner opened 1♣ and east overcalled 1♦. I had 13pts balanced and bid 1♠ and my p bid 1nt. Then I bid 3nt with Q** in ♦. The contract went down because my partner had *** in ♦. He explained me later that he bid 1nt because 1♠ is forcing and that he had no better bid and 1nt doesn't promise ♦ stopper.

1♣-1♦-1♠-Pass-1NT-Pass-3NT

Does 1NT here promise ♦ stopper.

[aguahombre]

If he had no better rebid than to show a balanced opening bid without spade support, then he was right. If you had no particular reason to do anything other than bid the NT game, then you were right. Sometimes the Bridge God is unkind.

[Antig2]

aguahombre, on 2013-January-01, 11:07, said:

If he had no better rebid than to show a balanced opening bid without spade support, then he was right. If you had no particular reason to do anything other than bid the NT game, then you were right. Sometimes the Bridge God is unkind.

I just noticed that I could bid 2♦ to make sure that my partner has ♦ stopper and he bids 2nt. The problem with this bid is that if he has no ♦ stopper he has to bid 2♠ with 3 spades or he can bid 2♥ and end up in a contract with 4-3 fit which is usually fine with the point advantage that we have.

[aguahombre]

You have game values between you. You think you can lose three diamonds and take all the rest? I don't know, because I don't see the hand; But if you can, there was probably a way to make 3NT, since their diamonds are most likely 5-2 and hard to run them when you have QXX in dummy.

[Zelandakh]

It is not an uncommon agreeement to play that a 1NT bid in situations like this does not promise a full stopper. As you have noted, there is ample space to find out the diamond situation if we are going to game. A question for you on the hand though - was any other game contract better than 3NT? It is often the case that two balanced hands play better in 3NT than 5m or a Moysian 4M. On another day you might have found RHO with ♦AK giving you a guaranteed stopper. If 4M was indeed better then it is quite likely that your hand was suit-oriented enough to rebid something other than 3NT.