[cencio]

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Me in West bid pass.
My partner at the end goes away deriding my bid.
Has he all the reason ?
Is 2 spade correct ?
What was better to bid at the place of pass ?

[smerriman]

Are your opponents playing a weak no-trump? What system do you play over 1NT?

There are many different systems, and your questions can't be answered properly without knowing what agreements you have. It's not really possible to compete over 1NT if you have no agreements at all.

But if you've agreed 2♠ could be made on that hand, and you're not going to raise with decent points and 5 card support, when are you going to raise?

[LBengtsson]

smerriman, on 2022-November-27, 20:52, said:

But if you've agreed 2♠ could be made on that hand, and you're not going to raise with decent points and 5 card support, when are you going to raise?

Agree. I think you have to take on board the Law of Total Tricks (LOTT) at every turn in the bidding. Partner will not overcall 1NT without having a opening hand and at least a 5 card ♠ suit. If partner's 2♠ is natural then by LOTT you are worth 4♠. Even if you feel jumping to 4♠ may be a level too high, you must tell him you have good support by bidding 3♠ at the very least. If you have a fit, support. Only 'pass' or bid another suit if you do not.

[akwoo]

Playing against strong NT, you can get away with not having agreements about the strength of your overcalls. You're almost never going to have game anyway, so assuming all overcalls are destructive will rarely cost you.

Playing against weak NT, not having an agreement about the strength of your overcalls will hurt you. Frequently. In a weaker field, my weak NT partnerships unfortunately get gifted a board or two every session because the opponents are not on the same page about the strength of their overcalls over 1N (whatever system they're playing).

Now, if you're in England, where the weak NT is common, I think you can expect that the range of an overcall is roughly 11-15 if undiscussed (because, for partnerships without special methods, that's the easiest range to play). Anywhere else, you'd better discuss this.

I think your partner should've doubled (assuming you're playing penalty doubles), but assuming partner shows a near opening hand by stepping in against their weak NT, I think you're worth an invite, however you do that.

[mw64ahw]

Playing opposite a Weak NT it is worthwhile having an approach that can show the 2-suited hand.
Coming round to West; revaluation of the hand means that 4♠ becomes more than a pre-emptive LoTT bid opposite an opening hand. With a weaker overcall approach you can use 2NT to ask about strength similar to a Weak2 opening

[Douglas43]

I'm like Akwoo's comment. As your partner did not double the 1NT, I guess you were playing against a strong NT. It's quite reasonable to have a policy of not raising overcalls against a strong NT without exceptional support. This might be worth bidding 3♠ as you have 5 card support and a singleton.

And if your partner went away deriding your bid, that says more about your partner than your bidding.

[mycroft]

Agreeing with everyone.

We absolutely need to know the NT range - 14-16? - and your agreements about overcalling whichever range they have.

For instance, if (against a strong NT, at favourable) your partner will show "both majors" with your hand, and also bid with the the one he has (was it spades and a minor? or just spades?) then you pass this and hope to go plus. You are going to get more overcalls that look like your hand than that look like East's, and you pay off to these when you don't go minus in 3.

Now, South's pass does say something; but five or 6 points could easily be over on the other side and you're in the last positive spot, even with the 11 card fit (okay, you don't have that either. Still).

If this is a true partnership, then there's a bunch of discussion that has to happen about agreements, and then play to determine if the discussion matches reality. If it's pickup, then it's the standard "everybody plays the way I do, and therefore" combined with a little bit of "maybe I did underbid my hand a bit" and maybe even some resulting. Chalk it up to "there's a reason practiced partnerships are better" and move on.

[pescetom]

mw64ahw, on 2022-November-27, 23:54, said:

Playing opposite a Weak NT it is worthwhile having an approach that can show the 2-suited hand.
Coming round to West; revaluation of the hand means that 4♠ becomes more than a pre-emptive LoTT bid opposite an opening hand. With a weaker overcall approach you can use 2NT to ask about strength similar to a Weak2 opening

Occasionally we agree
It's pretty normal over strong NT to give up a natural double and agree that 2♠ shows 5 spades plus a minor with a significant range of strength, so 2NT can usefully be a forcing inquiry in a regular partnership.