[rwbarton]

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What hand types are included in this 2♠ cuebid by opener? In particular, is 2♠ game forcing?

Also, does it depend on whether responder's suit is higher than opener's? What about this auction?

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[Stephen Tu]

Depends a bit on how you play the 2/1 bid in comp. I'll assume the 2/1 bid = 10+ points, 1RF, does *not* promise a rebid, which I think is standard.

These are mostly "strong GF hand", "uncertain about strain, might want to play 3nt".
So I would think:
- strong bal/semi-balanced, no spade stopper, fewer than 3 hearts
- strong diamond one-suiter, no spade stop
- strong w/ both minors
- a few hands too strong for 4h, not a spade splinter

On the second hand there are probably more hands with some diamond support but without a spade stop, since you don't necessarily want to bypass 3nt with 4d like you can when responder's suit is hearts. But on the other hand, you *remove* the strong heart one suiters, since you now can jump to 3h, forcing.

[han]

What Stephen said is standard I think.

[rwbarton]

OK, thanks. So in particular 2♠ is game forcing. What is the normal rebid for opener with a minimum (semi)balanced hand without a spade stopper? Say 3244 on the first auction with xxx in spades and 12-14 HCP. Does 2NT promise something in spades?

[aguahombre]

rwbarton, on 2012-May-07, 17:10, said:

So in particular 2♠ is game forcing. What is the normal rebid for opener with a minimum (semi)balanced hand without a spade stopper? Say 3244 on the first auction with xxx in spades and 12-14 HCP. Does 2NT promise something in spades?

A good question which we could never resolve; so we got lazy and made the freebid game forcing itself.