I recently fired up my computer to generate 100 random deals so I could practice my bidding a little. Interestingly a lot of weak no-trump hands showed up (12-14) and there were a few deals where I could play with my favorite toy: Raptor 1NT overcalls. As was to be expected there were also some “wild” deals. The following was a little hard to bid, but good old Markie helped me find a sensible sollution:
| 862 | ||
| Q6 | ||
| 853 | ||
| 97542 | ||
| 94 | AKQ75 | |
| 85 | AKJT3 | |
| AQ9 | J4 | |
| AKQJT6 | 8 | |
| JT3 | ||
| 9742 | ||
| KT762 | ||
| 3 |
The beginning of the auction isn’t a big surprise I suppose: 1♠-2♣. This is where the first problem comes up. Is 2♥ forcing or not? Many good partnerships play it round forcing, indicating a 5-4 in the MA. In this case it might be best to indicate a 5-5 in the MA with 3♥. This has the advantage that it is forcing to game, but the disadvantage that it eats up a lot of space. What we came up with is this:
| 1♠ | 2♣ | |
| 3♥ | 3♠ | – Bidding is forcing so “false preference” |
| 4♣ | 4♦ | |
| 4♥ | 4NT | – RKC1430 |
| 5♣ | 5♦ | – 3 keycards, 5♦ asks for the Q |
| 6♥ | 7NT | – ♠Q as well as ♥K |
I can’t help but wonder if it makes sense to play 2-over-1 gamefoce or a strong club system. Oh well, as long as 2♥ is forcing for another round you should be fine in most cases I guess…