[nige1]

Everyday 2/1 Auction (from USA trials)
1♦ (Pass) 1♠ (Pass);
2♦ (Pass) 2♥ (Pass);
3♣ = ???

[TylerE]

GF for me, not necessarily because I think it's best for any hand I would bid it on, but because I don't want to have a bunch of meta-rules for when 4SF does or does not apply.

[PhilKing]

I was expecting to see a 2/1 auction.

[CSGibson]

4th suit forcing only applies by responder. Opener is just making a natural and non-forcing description of his hand, IMO, without special agreement to the contrary. Note, bidding diamonds, diamonds, and then clubs is usually thought of as the weakest way to bid a 6-4 hand, which should clarify nicely whether this is forcing or not, assuming everyone agrees that it is natural.

[yunling]

For me, it shows enough value for GF with club unstopped, or just want partner to play 3NT. But if 2H is not natural then 3C as natural non-forcing has some merit.

[gnasher]

If 2♥ is natural and not a game-force, 3♣ should be FSF, for exactly the same reasons as in other auctions where we've bid three suits:
- You need to be able to bid a good hand without primary support and without a stop in the fourth suit.
- You're unlikely to have a fit in the fourth suit, so the cost of playing it as artificial is small.

If 3♣ is natural, what do you bid with x AQx AKJxxx xxx? 3♦ is non-forcing, 3♥ is misdescriptive (and may also be non-forcing), and any number of notrumps is awful.

On the rare occasions that we have a club fit, we can still find it: opener bids 2NT showing a club stop; responder bids 3♣ showing 5404; opener raises.

[Codo]

gnasher, on 2013-June-14, 02:22, said:

If 2♥ is natural and not a game-force, 3♣ should be FSF, for exactly the same reasons as in other auctions where we've bid three suits:
- You need to be able to bid a good hand without primary support and without a stop in the fourth suit.
- You're unlikely to have a fit in the fourth suit, so the cost of playing it as artificial is small.

If 3♣ is natural, what do you bid with x AQx AKJxxx xxx? 3♦ is non-forcing, 3♥ is misdescriptive (and may also be non-forcing), and any number of notrumps is awful.

On the rare occasions that we have a club fit, we can still find it: opener bids 2NT showing a club stop; responder bids 3♣ showing 5404; opener raises.

Bridge can be so easy, if it is explained by Andy....

[FrancesHinden]

Playing it as natural and weak is obviously insane, are you just trying to get too high on misfit?
Playing it as natural and forcing seems pointless, if you have a good hand with diamonds and clubs you bid 2C last round.

Therefore it's artificial.
It's true 2D limited your hand, but there's still a wide range of possible hands you can have.
It's interesting whether it should be game forcing or whether you can give up in 4D or 3S, but seems simplest to play it as game forcing; this depends a bit on how much you need to bid 2H.

p.s. I play 3H as forcing in this auction, because it's really messy if you can't raise hearts with 4 of them, and you can't afford to jump to 4H with extras because partner might not have genuine hearts.

[PhilKing]

I'm still seething about this auction from Tuesday.

Playing rubber bridge (£30 per hundred) with a large Swedish chap who held:

♠-
♥KQJx
♦QJxx
♣QJxxx

We started:

1♣-1♠
2♣-2♦

Now it continued:
2♥-3♣
3♦

and I now failed to diagnose that he had a triple hearts stop, so we finished in 5♣ off three aces (I held AKQxx xx Kxx Jxx - I could bid 3S but could not see how 3NT is ever right eg xx Ax AJx KQTxxx). I'm firmly in the camp that thinks it shows a very good 2♣ and typically Ax or Axx heart rebid rather than a hand that somehow can't decide between two obvious bids.

[aguahombre]

Perhaps if your partner planned his rebid before knee-jerking his opening bid, you would have gotten into a true 4SF auction and ended in 3NT.

[Winstonm]

I always used 1D-2C-2D as a good 6/4 with 1D-2D-3C as a weak 6/4. I can imagine bidding it with 2263, though, and xxx in clubs, and though I voted in the poll for natural it cannot always be that.

[aguahombre]

Winstonm, on 2013-June-16, 09:29, said:

I always used 1D-2C-2D as a good 6/4 with 1D-2D-3C as a weak 6/4.

I doubt you could legally complete that first sequence.

[Winstonm]

aguahombre, on 2013-June-16, 10:04, said:

I doubt you could legally complete that first sequence.

I always have a spade in with my clubs.