[straube]

Match points all vul. X Kxxxx Ax AQxxx

P P 1D ?

1H or 2N (lowest unbid)?

[mgoetze]

Looks like a reasonable minimum 2NT bid to me.

[MrAce]

2 NT, get it out of your chest.

This way if your LHO raises to 3♦ you can pass without feeling guilty, if you overcall 1♥ and 3♦ comes back to you, you will not like any of your options including pass.

[gwnn]

Looks far, far too weak. I see no strong reason to introduce clubs at this point + I have no 3-level safety even if partner has 3-card support for one of my suits.

[gszes]

2n

you are behind opening bidder making your hand
even better than it appears. Misfits will happen
and occassionally this will backfire but it will
not be often. The clubs are much better than the
hearts so I see no real need to stress hearts
over clubs at this point. 2N gives p a ton of
info all at once and that is usually a good thing.

[the_dude]

2NT for me too ... it simultaneous gives your partner maximum information so that he can compete to the correct level ... and denies your opponents space to do the same. You rate to be in a highly advantageous position most of the time ... with the downside being you will go for your life once in a while. Such is life.

[rmnka447]

At MPs, I'm bidding 2 NT (unusual). I'd like ♥ to be better, but you have about the right values (opener) for a VUL unusual NT.

[mgoetze]

 gwnn, on 2012-April-13, 02:38, said:

Looks far, far too weak. I see no strong reason to introduce clubs at this point + I have no 3-level safety even if partner has 3-card support for one of my suits.

OK so what would a minimum 2NT look like for you?

[Siegmund]

For me, I still play 'weak or strong' and I like this hand enough to call it in-between rather than weak. I start with 1H. Taking away either of the aces I would be bidding 2N.

[ggwhiz]

1♥ here. I don't see any reason to screw myself if pard has something like a 5-2-4-2 and the hand belongs to us in a notrump or two or a plus on defence.

[gwnn]

 mgoetze, on 2012-April-14, 07:42, said:

OK so what would a minimum 2NT look like for you?

6-5/5-6 or very good concentration (spots are also welcome). 1H seems to do the job fine on most hands with 5-5. I don't have a very firm definition, but x KQxxx Ax AQT9x would be something where I'd consider a 2NT bid, or the same hand with 6-5 (especially 5-6). This post begs the question, would I not be better off with playing 2NT as something else, e.g. making it promise 5-6. Maybe so, I don't know. I just don't understand why we want to play on the 3-level when we can have nice, intelligent auctions like
1d-1h-p-2h, or 1D-1H-1NT-x, p-3C or something. We can give a first approximation description on the 1 level, isn't that great?

Yes, we preempt their spades somewhat, that is cool, but does it make up for all the perils? I think not, not on most hands. To me, UNT over say 1S is something quite different (although honestly this hand still looks too weak to me unless you give me some interiors) because we are never really expecting to play 2m anyway (as opposed to playing in 2M, which is something that will happen a reasonable amount of time), so we just go to the 3-level in one go. Well this is just my interpretation of the risk/reward ratio. For some reason these hands don't seem to come up enough for me to have a very well-defined border but I just don't see the need for using 2NT over minors as often as most people (for example, all almost all the people in this thread).

[lalldonn]

I would bid 1♥ because the hearts are so bad. Sounds weird, doesn't it?

[mikl_plkcc]

I would bid 1♥ playing weak or strong 2NT. This is an in-between hand.