[EricK]

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I was just interested in how people would bid these hands, with South to open. They came up at the club last night and most pairs were in 5♦ (obviously going off), with a couple in 4♠ (which happened to make as ♠ were 3-3).

Our sequence (and I'm not proud of it), playing Acol-ish (and I'm not proud of that, either) was:
South North
1♠ 2♦ (playing a weak NT and a non-forcing 1NT response, this seemed the least of all evils to me, as partner might pass a 1NT response with eg a balanced 15 count, when game would be good))
4♦ 5♦ (partner felt he had to make a strong move as 3♦ is passable. A splinter didn't occur to him, and we hadn't agreed to play them in this situation, anyway. I felt stuck at this stage, and would have liked to try 4NT natural, but doubt it would have been interpreted as such!)

[gszes]

natural systems have their drawbacks just as 2/1 has its problems.
There is no simple way to bid this hand using natural systems and
2/1 has this hand covered easily and can be bid a number of ways
with the most effective being 1s 2d 3h (splinter) 3n. the splinter allows
for an entire range of contracts if partner cannot bid 3n:)))

[Cyberyeti]

Combined 26 counts where no game is great are always tricky although you want to be in 3N, 4♠ needs diamonds 2-2 in theory as well as the 3-3 spade break. We don't play a splinter in this situation (weak NT Acol is our general system).

1♠-2♦
2N(GF 15+ not necessarily bal)-3♥(only 4 diamonds natural, not 4♣)
3♠-3N

And then basically S knows he's facing a 2443 10-12 with a club stop if it's 3 bare aces, you could be making a grand, if it's what it is, you may not be making anything.

[gnasher]

1♠-1NT
2♦-3♦
3♠-3NT
pass

[billw55]

To me, the north hand does not look good enough for a 2♦ response, even if not playing 2/1. Oh well, I am a pretty primitive bidder, my auction would probably clunk along like this:

1♠ - 1NT
2♦ - 2NT (max)
3NT

But by any methods, all roads should lead to 3NT.