[Free]

When playing XYZ, is it possible to show a balanced invitational hand without a ♣ stopper after the following auction:
1♦ - 1♥
1♠ - ?

And similar, to show a balanced invitational hand without a ♦ stopper after:
1♣ - 1♥
1♠ - ?

If so, how do you do it?
If not, what do you usually do?

[SteelWheel]

In regular partnerships, when playing XYZ, my preferred agreement for Auction #1 is that 2♣ (forced relay to 2♦) followed by 3♣=signoff, and that 2♣ followed by 2NT is invitational, but showing some kind of club values (and passable), thus allowing a direct 2NT by responder at his second turn to also mean "invitational" but denying the club values indicated by the 2♣--2♦ dance.

Most of my regular partnerships revolve around some kind of strong club base, so I haven't considered Auction #2 until now. I'll have to think about that one..

[rbforster]

I usually play Walsh style rebids by opener, so 1♠ in those auctions promises an unbalanced hand usually 4♠/5+minor. In this case, you can usually find a reasonable bid if

1) you have a 5 card heart suit invite, 2♣-2♦-2♥
2) you have 3 cards in partner's minor invite, 2♣-2♦-3m

I suppose you could be on 3=4=(4,2) with only a doubleton minor for partner and xxxx in the unbid minor, but maybe with that you have to pick whether to invite via 2N normally or maybe something else?

There are lots of ways to show various degrees of spade raises in XY♠ - pass, 2♠, 2♣...2♠, 3♠, 2♣...3♠, not to mention all the sequences that start with a GF 2♦. Maybe you could use 2♣-2♦-2♠ to show 3 spades and doubt about NT? I suppose this means you've only got one invite to show spades at the 2 level instead of two (light invite 2♠, sound invite 2♣...2♠), but if you've got a sound invite probably bidding to the 3 level isn't too bad.

[cherdano]

Well usually you can invite in some suit if you don't have a stopper in the 4th suit. The only problem is 3433, with that I would just make my normal balanced invite.