In the long term, you will survive longer by listening to your wife.
Eric Leong
It has been a basic standard bidding principle "forever" that new suits by
responder are forcing and agreements to the contrary are bound to create
unmanageable auctions and guessing.
As to overcalls, it is subject to agreement whether you want to play "new
suit forcing over partner's overcall" not forcing. Both have advantages
and disadvantages. I prefer "forcing by unpassed hand, constructive
nonforcing by passed hand"
: I apologize for a beginners question, but.. My wife and I disagree on when a
:
It is always safer to listen to the wife. Beware the rolling pin!
However... one exception...
1H - 1S
1NT - 2D
After a 1NT rebid (limited to within 3 points) a rebid in a lower suit
would be weak, to play. Longer diamonds here.
Kxxx, x, QJxxxx, xx
3D would be forcing.
Regards
Sid
And when he's right he should apologize.
--
Will in New Haven
There is no single answer to this. Here are some of the more common
situations:
- You open 1 of a suit. Partner responds in a new suit. It's
forcing, whether higher or lower.
- You open 1 of a suit. Partner responds 1 of a new suit or 1NT. You
rebid in a new suit. It's nonforcing if it's lower than your first
suit, forcing if it's higher. For example, 1D - 1S - 2C is nonforcing
(otherwise how would you bid with 5-5 minimum opener?) but 1C - 1S -
2D is forcing (it can't show just a minimum opener, because then you'd
be too high when a minimum responder just returned to opener's first
suit)
- You open 1 of a suit. Partner responds 1 of a new suit. You rebid
1NT. Partner rebids 2 of a third suit. It's nonforcing if it's lower
than partner's first suit, forcing if it's higher. For example, 1D -
1S - 1NT - 2H is nonforcing (otherwise how would responder bid with a
5-5 minimum?) but 1D - 1H - 1NT - 2S is strong (which is okay because
if responder is weak and 5-5 he'll start with 1D - 1S instead, and if
he's weak and 5-4 there's no need to look for the spade fit because
it's not there: opener would have rebid 1D - 1H - 1S if it were).
- You open 1 of a suit. Partner responds 2 of a new suit. You rebid
in a third suit. It's forcing, whether higher or lower, even if you're
not playing 2-over-1 as forcing to game. Partner's 2-over-1 promised
another bid unless your rebid is 2 of your suit, 3 of hers, or 2NT.
New-suit responses to overcalls are a matter of agreement. Usually
they are "constructive", i.e. not forcing, but encouraging. If you
need to force, you can bid the opponent's suit.
New-suit responses to weak 2 openers are also a matter of agreement,
but if you play them as forcing, I believe you have to alert that (in
the ACBL).
Many of the regulars on this group are (much) more expert than I am,
so perhaps there will be other opinions, but I think these are what's
standard, at least in the U.S. where I am (and where I'm guessing you
are based on your email address).
If you were thinking of a particular situation other than one of
these, just say so. This is a pretty helpful group.
Haven't there been systems where 1H-2C was nonforcing? I think Katz-
Cohen's Breakthrough might have been like this, based on what little
I've read about it (1H-1NT was unlimited, 1H-2C was nonforcing, 1H-2C
plus a sniff through the left nostril was weak... or something like
that...) I kind of suspect that was the reason that a game-
invitational (or better) 1NT response to a major was prohibited by the
GCC.
But anyway, if you do play that way, I suspect you'd need a lot of
other specialized agreements, so it's definitely not for beginners.
-- Adam
> New-suit responses to weak 2 openers are also a matter of agreement,
> but if you play them as forcing, I believe you have to alert that (in
> the ACBL).
>
Backwards, non-forcing is the alertable treatment in ACBL.
Travis
Yes, thanks for correcting that.
In an uncontested auction then new suit forcing is a simple rule that
works quite well. The system I play has a few exceptions that seldom
arise so I'd stick with new suit forcing.
With overcalls I don't know a simple rule. Certainly the first
overcall is never forcing, if you want to force then double or cue
bid. One hard case is the responding to the first overcall when RHIO
passes. Take (1D) 1S 2C. Is that 2C forcing or not? Or should it
be (1D) 1S 3C that is forcing? Or should the only forcing response
be a cue bid? Is that forcing for one round or to game?
I'll take a stab at a simple rule for contested auctions. New suit is
forcing unless both opponents are showing cards.
Definately, and the exceptions should probably be discussed and
introduced one by one. Making a manageable rules to cover the
exceptions sound infeasible.
I am not sure I agree with `seldom' though.
1N - 2H (natural) is normally to play
1H - 1S ; 2C is often NF, although it takes a very bad hand to pass
1H - 1N; 2H - 3D has to be NF if bid at all.
Over a wk 2 both NF and F new suit are common.
: With overcalls I don't know a simple rule. Certainly the first
: overcall is never forcing, if you want to force then double or cue
: bid. One hard case is the responding to the first overcall when RHIO
: passes. Take (1D) 1S 2C. Is that 2C forcing or not? Or should it
: be (1D) 1S 3C that is forcing? Or should the only forcing response
: be a cue bid? Is that forcing for one round or to game?
:
: I'll take a stab at a simple rule for contested auctions. New suit is
: forcing unless both opponents are showing cards.
And an improvement to that rule would probably have to be based on
a good partnership understanding of overcall strength, cuebid strength,
etc. Picking up a general rule on whether a new suit is forcing or not
is only going to help if compatible rules are used for all other bids
as well.
--
:-- Hans Georg http://www.ii.uib.no/~georg/
`This Universe never did make sense; I suspect that it was built
on government contract.' (Heinlein)