What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for July 2005

The best submission for the month of July was made by Maura Rhodes.

Hand: The dealer is West and as East you hold.

	AK4  764  Q1087643  -

Bidding:	West	North	East	South
	1NT*	2**	?

* Weak, 12-14
** A single-suited hand

Comments: We play Acol with transfers. After the intervention I don't know how to find out if partner likes diamonds which is crucial. I chose to bid 2NT-Lebensohl and, after 3 puppet, 3 , which was passed out.

Partner held:

	9752  K9  AJ95  A62

5 and 3NT were cold but how should it have been bid?

And Peter’s Response:

Hi Maura,

Special bidding conventions such as Lebensohl are only useful if the partnership understands the convention itself and the implications of choosing not to use the convention in situations where it might have been employed.

Thus in the current situation, playing Lebensohl, there are three ways to introduce a suit below 3NT. These are -

1. bid the suit at the 2 level, 2
2. bid 2NT and, over the forced 3 bid the suit, 2NT:3, 3.
3. bid the suit directly at the 3 level, jump to 3.

Understanding this allows a partnership to assign three different strengths to the three different actions.

The bid at the two level is logically natural, nonforcing, with no invitational connotations.

The other two options are available for invitational hands and game forcing hands with the partnership deciding which approach is more appropriate to their needs.

 In the case of suits at, or below, the level of the intervention, only two obvious methods are available, since the bid at the two level is not available.

In the given example you could agree to play 2 as selection of contract, the jump to 3 as game forcing and 2NT followed by 3, after partner's 3 as invitational.

On this deal, in this context, the auction ought to be:

West	North	East	South
1NT	2	2NT	P
3	P	3	P
3NT	All pass

It is a must to accept partner's invitation with that diamond holding despite the minimum in high cards. Whether the auction stops there or ends up elsewhere may depend on table factors.

You claim that both 3NT and 5 are cold, but 5 is a good contract and 3NT is barely acceptable. 3NT is only "cold" if the diamonds are 1-1 or South is played, correctly, to hold both the outstanding diamond cards. Assuming the intervener’s suit is in fact clubs and a club is lead, after winning the ace it will be necessary to cross to the spade ace and lead a diamond from dummy. Unless the king appears there and then, are you to rise with the ace or finesse? With no information it is correct, by a small margin, to rise, playing for a 1-1 split. Here, however, there are almost certainly six or more clubs with North. The mathematicians will tell you that that changes the probabilities sufficiently to finesse. Are you sure you want to describe 3NT as "cold"? 

Regards
Peter Fordham

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