Question: When East opens in a minor suit, diamonds, it does not guarantee 5 diamonds. Should West respond in another suit to keep the auction going so that East can indicate whether East has enough diamonds to proceed?
Mark:
West does face a bit of a dilemma.
Back to the theme of the
past 2 weeks: Partner has opened the bidding and you have an opening hand; OK,
not a great opening hand. You could decide not to bid or force to game,
but you must at least show an invitational hand, which a 2 D bid definitely
does not. A 2D bid actually denies the actual hand. It says "Partner, I do
not have a game forcing OR invitational hand, but I do have some diamond
support. You do have a stopper in the overcall suit, you might downgrade the hand
to invitational status. You can make the most direct invitational bid of 2NT,
which many strong players would do. You would prefer that if partner has the A
or K of hearts, that NT be bid from the E side, as that makes for a
stronger stopper if a heart is led from the South, not North. On the actual
hand, it doesn't matter, as N would lead the king, handing E-W a double stopper
and 2 sure tricks in hearts. If not 2NT or 3NT, W has no other good call than 2
clubs. That's not entirely desirable, since you normally should have 5 or more
clubs for that bid. Still, partner is required to keep the bidding open and
you've announced at least a game invitational hand. East might be tempted to
raise to 3 clubs, but really should bid 2NT over 2 clubs. Now W, with a
secondary heart stopper should bid 3NT.
3NT is a pretty good contract and happens to make
easily, possibly with an overtrick.. Looking at the E-W cards only, and knowing
that S overcalled 1 Heart, you want to be in 3NT, even though it might be
difficult to make against some layout of the N-S cards. If the only games you
bid are the ones that are 100% safe, you may score the occasional coward's
reward, but far more often will get a poor score compared to more enterprising
bidders. One call that some players might consider by W is to pass 1 heart.
That may sound weak, but actually, in the style of most pairs, it is close to
forcing. Partner will usually make a reopening double and now you can bid
2 or 3 NT. If W doubles 1 heart, it is forcing, but it also promises 4 spades.
It could be done on less than a game- invitational hand and 5 or more spades. I
mention that only to make the point that most reasonable call by the
actual W hand will deny 4 (or more) , which is correct on this hand.
Incidentally, E is perfectly correct to pass 2
Diamonds. If W has the hand that 2D shows, this is as high as you want to be.
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