In today’s write-up, we are going to review a few guidelines that are crucial to play by. To start off, let’s take a look at one auction from a hand in CK’s team game on June 16th.
New suits by responders are 100% forcing.
The bidding starts off with a preempt of 2♥ by East. West responds with 3♦ on the three-level. This bid is 100% forcing for one round, because new suits by responder are forcing. East should not have passed here. Passing the contract in 3♦ resulted in failure to play in a heart contract with their solid 8 card fit and in a negative EW score of 50 points (down 1), when the other table’s EW pair made 4♥ (+420). Their bidding is a good example of how the auction should have went:
After the 3♦ response, East rebid her heart suit. In this case, because East preempted and may not have another suit to show, rebidding hearts does not guarantee 7 hearts. Hearts were rebid because that was the only suit to East’s hand, and East could not pass West’s new suit response. Keep in mind that had West just raised to 3♥ instead of the diamond response, that would not be forcing because it is not a new suit.
Support with firm support.
Let’s also take a look at another auction.
North starts the bidding off with 1♣ and East overcalls 1♦. South responds 1♥, showing 4 or more hearts and less than 4 spades. Side note: If South wanted to show 4-4 in the majors, South can make a negative double. Without the negative double, it shows 4+ hearts. West supports East’s diamonds by bidding 2♦, and North responds to partner’s 1♥ bid with 2♥ with only two hearts. North should not have bid 2♥ because North does not have enough support for partner. Partner may only hold 4 hearts; you may not assume that partner has more than that. Only support your partner when you are certain together you have a strong fit in the suit. This 2♥ bid led NS to be down 1, 100 points to EW.
2/1 review
In this board, the auction began with a 1♠ opening by West, showing at least 5 spades and an opening hand. East makes a 2/1 response of 2♣.
As a refresher, 2/1 is a system that forces a pair to bid to game when responder makes a bid on the 2-level that is below the opener’s suit. 2/1 bidding sequences look like: (opener/responder)
When either one of these 6 patterns are bid, neither player can pass until a game contract is reached. You must also have an opening hand to be able to bid 2/1 auctions. It is important to note that responder must not have passed before bidding 2/1 and there is no interference (no bids or doubles by the opponents) for the responding bid to be a 2/1 bid.
Here, bidding a game-forcing bid is a bit borderline. East only holds 11 weak points with a very flat hand. I feel like East should have just bid 1NT semi-forcing, showing 6-12 HCP. The bidding continued on after the 2♣ bid with West bidding 2NT. East should still realize she has made a game-forcing bid, and must bid until the pair reaches game, so she must not pass 2NT. Because EW did not go to game, they only received +210 for making 2NT+3 versus a +660 score for making 3NT+2. It is vital to recognize 2/1 bids so game bonuses can be rewarded for making the contract.