Wednesday, May 14, 2003 3:21 AM

2/1 Thoughts

PITBULLS:

The Standard American fix hands i.e. 10-12 HCP with a minor and partner opens a major are almost impossible to describe playing forcing NT . With a heart opener , we have the idle spade bid to get the message across that we have a minor hand in that HCP range . After a spade opener it is impossible to show these hands and confusing auctions result . When I played with Subash , I asked him how he handled these problems hands. He replied he has given up and plays 2/1 non forcing to game if the minor suit is rebid . You note that standard convention cards have a tick mark for partnerships who play it that way .

When 2/1 was just in its growing pain stage multi decades ago , Vish and I decided that 2 hearts , 2♣ and 2♦ over a spade opener and 2 diamonds/clubs over a heart opener was not forcing to game if the suit was rebid. This worked well so we could go to the two level with just a good heart suit and rebid it . This meant that the forcing 1NT did not have to go into contortions to jump in hearts . Vish and I assigned splinters to the bids instead. Same with strong minor hands . Since we would have bid 2/1 anyway and rebid our suit , jumps in the minor were splinters instead of suits and clarified a lot of auctions .

I noticed that in Bridge World Standard 2001 , the experts polled recommended that 2/1 should not be forcing to game if the suit is rebid . In the era of making 4^th suit noises to force to game it is easy to make sure the game force is flashed if you have a strong 2/1 suit . There is no reason to be so rigid with 2/1 when you have a good rebidable suit .

x	x	A	Q
x		K	10
		x	9
		x	x
			x
			x

Partner opens a spade and you bid 1NT . Partner rebids 2♦ so now what ? A 3♥ splinter would be a nice bid to make . Playing 2/1 in hearts as non forcing to game , the bid can not show hearts.

x	Q	x	A
x	J		K
x	x		x
	x		x
			x

Partner opens 1♠ and you bid 1NT . Partner rebids 2♣ and would you not like

to splinter to 3♦ ? Playing 3♦ as strong and natural is impossible or else you would have gone the non forcing 2/1 route.

x	x	A	x
x	x	K	x
		Q	x
		x
		x
		x

Scott and I had a disaster against the Cabays last night. Scott opened 1♠ and I bid a forcing NT . Stan bid 2♣ and Scott bid 2♥ . Lisa bid 3♦ which I doubled . Lisa then bailed to 4♣ and Scott and I had a forcing pass misunderstanding and they played it there . Meanwhile we are cold for 7♦ as Scott held Axxxx AKQx Jxxx void .

Now play 2/1 non forcing to game if suit rebid. 1♠ 2♦ and then a 5♣ exclusion bid or some sort of club splinter 6 or 7 diamonds is reached . No forcing 1NT contortions .

x	x	A	A
x	x	K	X
		Q	X
		x
		x
		x

O.K. now you do want to force to game . 1♠ 2♦

2♥ 3♣

What’s so difficult to come up with a 3♣ bid to force to game ? Partner will give preference to diamonds if she has 3 so its almost like rebiding 3♦ anyway . You are not giving up much and you solve an unsolvable forcing 1NT bidding fix.

The coach likes it !!!!