[Cromlyn]

As I got quite a bit of help trying to change from Acol to SAYC with a previous post I thought, now that I have got into a bit of trouble to ask for some help again. My very nice partner disappeared after a bidding sequence which I was anything but proud of!

The auction was uncontested and started okay with 1♦ from partner to which I responded 1♠ however, when he or she rebid 2♥ I did not know if that was forcing in SAYC (as it would be in Acol)? I really really did not want to bid again on my eight point hand but as I didn't know if it was forcing and had no support for either partner's suits I made the most awful bid of 3♣ and had no idea what partner would make of it?

The whole thing was a disaster, below is the bidding and the two hands and I would be grateful to know if the 2♥ was (a) FORCING? and (b) what I should have done?

1♦: 1♠
2♥: 3♣
3♠: 3NT

Partner's Hand:

Q6
K10852
AK1092
K

My Hand:

A982
3
76
A98763

[Bbradley62]

BBO has a very nice learning tool for this: a step-by-step convention card. Under "My BBO" click "Convention Cards" then choose "SAYC" (not "ACBL SAYC" or "SAYC--Standard American Yellow Card", as these don't have the step-by-step feature). You can construct auctions (only without interference) and see what various bids mean.

2♥ is a reverse showing extra values and is forcing. The old-fashioned definition of "extra values" was a K more than minimum opening, although this fluctuates with trends and partnership style. Note: 2♥ also very specifically shows more diamonds than hearts, so your partner should not have bid this way. Some will also say that he is not strong enough to reverse, even if his distribution had been correct. Of course, this doesn't solve your problem, as your partner might very well have had the hand he announced.

3♣ is too strong for your hand; new suit by responder is always forcing. I would have bid 2NT, expecting it to say "I can't support either of your suits, my points are in the other suits, and I still don't know that we have enough for game". The convention card discussed above disagrees with this interpretation, although it agrees that this is the correct bid. I'm eager to hear what others have to say.

[ArtK78]

I suggest that you look at the following thread:

http://www.bridgebas...everse-bidding/

[tolvyrj]

U prds bidding is questionable at least with 15 hcp. Q doubleton and single K hand is not worth reverse IMO, wheter he otherwise bid correctly according ACOL i dont know.
But back to u, 1S was right what else 2C would have been way too much. After prds response 2H u r bit awkwardly placed here, basicly u shld bid game not a partscore, prd has reversed and u have 2 aces.
On the other hand the old saying of how u bid misfits...DONT applies here quite well, u dont have that much more over u minimum to respond 1S so i would have bid 2NT...break up a bit since i have no support to prds suits. 3C is GF and bit rich here, but not much after all prd may have a true reverse.
I dont know what would have happend next, prd may not bid 3S since u deny 5 card suit by not rebidding them, but he will bid 3H and u? Are u any happier in 5D?

[Stephen Tu]

(1) Read reverse bidding thread stickied in the beginner forum

(2) The reverse is definitely forcing 1 round on responder. Whether the reverse also promises a rebid however (whether opener can pass 2s or 2nt) is fairly ambiguous in "SAYC", I don't think there is any elaboration on which of responder's bids are forcing or how strong they are. In contrast, in Bridge World Standard, opener's reverse also promises a third bid, and responder can bid cheapest of 2nt / 4th suit as a potential weakness signal, and responder's 3 level bids create an unambiguous game force. With a good partner you can perhaps assume BWS type agreements and usually survive. With a beginner you are going to be in a total guessing game whether partner will pass your intended forcing rebid or not, and whether they have what they are supposed to have to reverse in the first place. Beginners will reverse frequently on insufficient values and the wrong types of shapes.

(3) Your partner erred in opening 1d. In standard systems, you don't reverse with 5-5 shape to show more than a minimum opener. Partner will never know about the fifth heart, which is crucial for reaching a lot of good 4H games, unless you rebid the hearts twice, and in that case partner will think you are 5-6. It is standard to open 1h and rebid 2d (which is wide ranging, anything short of a game forcing jump shift, which this hand clearly isn't). It also doesn't meet most people's requirements for a reverse either in terms of high card strength (most use 16+ or 17+), if it was 4-5 shape instead. 5-5 automatically disqualifies the hand from reversing.

[Fluffy]

You bid the hand better than your partner. 2♥ is forcing and I suspect very similar to what ACOL hands look like