[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

the follwoing hands is from a pokal match, I played today.

The opponent play strong NT, 5 card major, 1C showes +2, 1D showes 4+.

You hold in 4th seat, red vs. green, if it matters at all

♠ATxx
♥AQ9
♦KTxx
♣QJ

The bidding starts

(1C) - Pass - (Pass) - X (1)
Pass - 2C (2) - (Pass) - ... (3)

(1) your only choice, even if you do not require a stopper for a 1NT over,
1NT would show 11-14
(2) 2 places to play, but you dont have discussed this bid in depth, p will
assume, you borrowed a King in his hand to make your bid
(3) your choice? Feel free on to elaborate on a possible meaning of the cue,
and as always, I more interested in the reasoning than in a specific bid.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[jillybean]

I want to bis 3♣, inviting partner to bid 3nt with a stopper , or passing the decision on where to play back to him.

What is a pokal match?

[P_Marlowe]

jillybean, on 2024-March-23, 12:55, said:

I want to bis 3♣, inviting partner to bid 3nt with a stopper , or passing the decision on where to play back to him.

What is a pokal match?

Pokal is German for Cup.

The winner proceeds to the next round. In the earlier rounds stronger teams quite often get a Bye.
But the seeding is mainly regional to reduce the travel distance.

We are usualy loosing in the 2nd round (or 3rd if you count the Bye).
In our bracket is a premier league team with members of the German national team squad, although they
are not playing the reg. partnerships.

But this was not this round, ..., it may be next round.

[jillybean]

Good luck !

[smerriman]

The usual advice I've seen is that a cue is forcing to suit agreement. So I'll keep things simple and bid 2♠.

[apollo1201]

Considering X can be light, partner needs at least opening strength to cue.

What can they have? Let s proceed by elimination.

They cannot have both M and opening strength (barring a rare 4414) as they would have Xed 1C.

With a single major they could jump to 2M with a mundane opening hand.

So they rate to have 14-15+, not necessarily with majors (which leads to a weak shapely opener). Or the dreadful 4414 that could not X.

Seems we can now get home. Although I am much more confident in making a successful contract facing a 4414 12 count than a 3343 14 count.

In all cases, partner does not know I have a 16 count, and I am therefore not sure that bidding 2M is forcing.

I guess we can try 3C, GF now.

So that il partner bids 3M we can raise to 4, if they bid 3D, we can try 3H, and now maybe partner tries then 3S (and we can try 3NT to show a dubious stopper) or partner bids 3NT and we can safely pass.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I did bid 3S, thinking it would be taken as / should be forcing, and have been left to play there.
All high cards could be found off side, pd was min and I just made it.

I like the suggestion, that the 2C bid is forcing until suit agreement.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[helene_t]

Cue forcing to suit agreeement is standard in North America, but not in the Netherlands. I dunno about Germany

3♠ should certainly be forcing but I think it should promise five spades. If 2♠ is not forcing, I bid 3♣.