[jcrosa]

(1) S asked the meaning of 2♦ (given as "natural, weak") before bidding 2NT

---

This one is from a club MP tournament last night. Weakish field. E/W are a young inexperienced pair. They play a modified Michaels where 2♦ over 1♣ shows the majors (2♣ being natural), but E (the most inexperienced of the two players) forgot the system and took 2♦ as natural, preemptive.

TD was called by S at the end of the play. The table result was 1 down in 3NT. S claimed that he wouldn't have bid 2NT with the singleton ♥7 if given the correct explanation.

Your ruling?

[Cyberyeti]

jcrosa, on 2011-June-18, 03:16, said:

(1) S asked the meaning of 2♦ (given as "natural, weak") before bidding 2NT

---

This one is from a club MP tournament last night. Weakish field. E/W are a young inexperienced pair. They play a modified Michaels where 2♦ over 1♣ shows the majors (2♣ being natural), but E (the most inexperienced of the two players) forgot the system and took 2♦ as natural, preemptive.

TD was called by S at the end of the play. The table result was 1 down in 3NT. S claimed that he wouldn't have bid 2NT with the singleton ♥7 if given the correct explanation.

Your ruling?

Well firstly hasn't E shown some sort of 1165/1174 by passing W's Michaels, so shouldn't he avoid using the UI and lead a ♦ rather than a heart. Bidding 3♦ over 2N is not out of the question either.

If 2♦ is correctly explained, this is a nasty problem at this vul, as from S's point of view taking 250 may well be insufficient so I'm not sure what S will do, but I suspect the answer is X to show clubs the unbid suit and they'll play 3♣.

[crazy4hoop]

I agree that west has abused the alert procedure, in this case probably a lack of an alert by east or NS asking and east offering the wrong explanation. If west operates under the assumption that his partner knew what 2♦ was and chose to pass anyway, then that would indeed suggest long diamonds and west should be considering attacking his side's "known" 9-card suit. I would probably adjust to 3NT making 3 on a diamond lead. I'm not sure if west should get an ethics lecture if s/he is really inexperienced but ought to be given some education on what the ethical thing to do might be. Or with that heart sequence does everyone think gotta lead a heart, wtp? Tough one.

[bluejak]

So, try two polls: first, what will South call after 1♣ 2♦ p p and the correct explanation?

Two, what will West lead after the given sequence if East has described the 2♦ bid as majors?