[Liversidge]

 iandayre, on 2015-August-20, 12:14, said:

Certainly a valid argument against pass, ignoring the two H Queens. What I don't understand about this is, why is there any thought of bidding anything other than 3H? No other call would occur to me.

I think you might be referring to the hand I showed in my first post, though the discussion had moved on (or at least I thought it had) to one a bit later, with this hand in response to Helene's posting, which is why I hadn't shown two ♥Q's:

---

. I had already accepted the advice that I should just rebid 3♥ with my first hand. When Bill said he would bid 3♦ on the second hand it made sense to me. I thought my hearts were too weak to rebid them at the 3 level, and I had no stop in clubs for a 2NT bid. Bidding 3♦ lied about my diamond length but showed my five hearts, and I thought it hinted at no stop in clubs. If partner had three hearts he could show three card support, or rebid his spades with six good ones, or bid 3NT with a good club stop. While not perfect I thought 3♦ was better than the alternatives.

[rmnka447]

There are a couple possible ways to play free bids after an overcall.

The more normal practice is to consider them forcing and at the 2 level showing at least a good 11-12 points. If you have a lesser, non forcing hand with a suit you'd like to show, there are two possible ways to do so. One is to make a negative double, then bid your suit over partner's response. The other is to pass and hope partner reopens the auction, then bid your suit. Doubling and bidding your suit would normally show a stronger hand than passing and bidding your suit.

The other possibility is not to have bidding a new suit be forcing. If you play this way, the problem then is how to show a forcing hand. Typically, the mechanism to do so is make a negative double than bid your suit. But if you play this way, there is a problem if the opponents raise the level of the auction. Take Liversidge's responder example hand ♠ AK10xx ♥ AQx ♦ Q10xx ♣ x . If the auction goes 1 ♥ - (2 ♣) - DBL - 3 ♣ - P - (P) - ?, then you start your constructive bidding at the 3 level.

What may confuse some people is that many people play new suits over a takeout double differently. They play new suits as non forcing and use the redouble to start the bidding on all stronger hands.


With the problem that was originally posted, I'd bid 3 ♥. But I'd have strongly considered bidding 2 ♥ instead of 1 ♥ originally.

[sfi]

 fourdad, on 2015-August-20, 10:44, said:

I am unfamiliar with bridge habits in Poland, so you may be correct.

NFBs are fairly normal in Polish systems, with the most common treatment at the moment seeming to be non-forcing only at the 2 level.

[echo25]

 sfi, on 2015-August-20, 15:35, said:

NFBs are fairly normal in Polish systems, with the most common treatment at the moment seeming to be non-forcing only at the 2 level.

Indeed.