[P_Marlowe]

manudude03, on 2014-January-21, 12:00, said:

If partner was 3235, he would have rebid 1NT. No other shape is possible (just for completeness sake if you wanted to rebid 1NT with a 2236 hand, then you have 13 tricks after 1 ruff)

Without a stopper in a 5 card suit bid by the opponents ?

[manudude03]

P_Marlowe, on 2014-January-22, 04:51, said:

Without a stopper in a 5 card suit bid by the opponents ?

You know partner has a stopper once you see him confirm 3 key cards as he must have the ace.

[Zelandakh]

manudude03, on 2014-January-22, 18:54, said:

You know partner has a stopper once you see him confirm 3 key cards as he must have the ace.

But you did not know it when you bid a non-forcing 1NT. This is a question of philosophy - traditionally you needed a stopper in their suit before bidding NT at any level. It is a comparatively modern practise to forego stoppers at the one level on the basis that this is still the most descriptive bid and even if they cash 5 or 6 off the top the contract could still make. Nonetheless, even those who are happy to bid 1NT in this style often shy away from it when a good and descriptive alternative is available. Thus there is no definitively correct answer with 5235.

Also, just a note to fromage - the hand given would also be impossible on my auction, since that hand is neither "suitable for slam" nor lacking a diamond control. To be honest, I cannot see any of those who made a splinter pushing on this hand, which is about as bad as it can be in the context of the auction.

Plus a note to Don, after the +2 splinter bid, I am not playing the 4m advance structure, since we have 2 control suits and therefore it is probably better to use the 2 forward-going bids available (3♠ and 4♣) as cues. Because I am using denial cues I need 4♣ over 3♠ for checking on the diamond situation. After a positive 3♠ cue the best use of 4♣ is probably as a Last Train style bid. This is basically a situation where I think our meta-agreement for advancing splinters should overrule the more general agreement for minor suit slam auctions, assuming we have a separate agreement for that.

[fromageGB]

Zelandakh, on 2014-January-23, 03:53, said:

But you did not know it when you bid a non-forcing 1NT. This is a question of philosophy - traditionally you needed a stopper in their suit before bidding NT at any level. It is a comparatively modern practise to forego stoppers at the one level on the basis that this is still the most descriptive bid and even if they cash 5 or 6 off the top the contract could still make. Nonetheless, even those who are happy to bid 1NT in this style often shy away from it when a good and descriptive alternative is available. Thus there is no definitively correct answer with 3235.

As you say, it depends on philosophy and hence the system and methods you adopt. With 3235, 1NT is the definitively correct answer if you define a 2♣ rebid as 6+ cards. I haven't found the style a big loser. Having definitions at this low level does help clarify distribution and hence, sometimes, find better contracts.