[apollo1201]

jillybean, on 2022-November-16, 20:13, said:

Thanks, how does South bid with a 3523 hand, unsuitable for nt.

4SF at 3C? The issue is so still bid 3NT with xxx facing xxx (as 5m loses 3 obvious tricks after pinpointing the lead). But here it is very hard and known as the diamonds issue. You can confirm or ask everything below 3NT over clubs, but not over diamonds. I guess responder here can bid 3H or S as either natural, i.e. honor doubleton and 5-cd, respectively, or a problem with C.
That is similar to 1H 2D 3D 3H = natural fit, SI, or C stopped, but not S. Always hard to navigate.

[jillybean]

DavidKok, on 2024-January-03, 02:16, said:

The Schuler Shift is nice, though you do need some agreement on the continuations. My partner and I had a bidding misunderstanding a while back on the auction 1♠-2♥; 2♠-3♣; 3♠-?, where I thought he showed 7 or a good six card suit with diamond weakness while he thought his failure to jump rebid 3♠ denied a good seven card suit so this had to be bad seven or any six. I still struggle with this topic, 'expert standard' 2/1 has several auctions like this that are simply ambiguous. I had a misunderstanding with a different partner yesterday where we missed a cold 3NT and settled for an inferior 5♦ on an auction where I thought I was patterning out and partner thought I was denying stoppers in the unbid suit.

Bear with me here, this is all new. PLaying S/S, on the auction 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ doesnt 2♠ deny a 6 card suit and 2N would show 6+?

[DavidKok]

That's right, I wasn't playing the shift in this partnership. I would like to, but 'standard', i.e. 2M catchall with higher bids showing extras, has too much momentum here and my most recent partners were not open to trying alternatives.

[jillybean]

sfi, on 2024-January-03, 04:08, said:

In my partnerships we use the catch-all 2M for a bunch of 5-4 hands as well, leaving a new suit at the three-level as more of a pure 2-suiter (normally 5-5, but 5-4 if it really looks right). We like sorting out the shape at the expense of the immediate knowledge of extras.

I'm not saying it's better, but it may be something to consider at some point. We've been happy with it for a few years.

Thanks. Yes, many ways to approach it but the key is having the agreement.

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2024-January-03, 04:08, said:

In my partnerships we use the catch-all 2M for a bunch of 5-4 hands as well, leaving a new suit at the three-level as more of a pure 2-suiter (normally 5-5, but 5-4 if it really looks right). We like sorting out the shape at the expense of the immediate knowledge of extras.

I'm not saying it's better, but it may be something to consider at some point. We've been happy with it for a few years.

We do too, but I think it's laziness (and not only on my part).
Interesting discussion.