[AL78]

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Scratch partner, playing Acol, 3 weak twos, weak NT. What do you do here?

[mike777]

3Nt seems obvious

[smerriman]

mike777, on 2025-December-03, 18:03, said:

3Nt seems obvious

Not sure about obvious - give partner AQx-x-AKJxxx-Kxx and we want to be in grand. We could be making small slam opposite hands weaker than a 3♦ rebid too.

Not that I know how to find them.. what is 4N here?

[mike777]

smerriman, on 2025-December-03, 18:16, said:

Not sure about obvious - give partner AQx-x-AKJxxx-Kxx and we want to be in grand. We could be making small slam opposite hands weaker than a 3♦ rebid too.

Not that I know how to find them.. what is 4N here?

Not close to a 3d bid
For me 2NT rebid

[smerriman]

mike777, on 2025-December-03, 18:22, said:

Not close to a 3d bid
For me 2NT rebid

Showing 18-19 balanced?! We seem to have very different understandings of Acol

[mike777]

smerriman, on 2025-December-03, 18:26, said:

Showing 18-19 balanced?! We seem to have very different understandings of ACOL

If you are going to ban my 2NT rebid with your example, am I permitted to manufacture a jump shift to a fake 3C, that partner is aware of, or is that also banned?

My point being your hand example is too strong for 3D

[eagles123]

tough hand. I think 4N should be this sort of hand, as with diamond support we can go through 4D first. But with a scratch partner there's no way I'd risk it. Therefore a reluctant 3N and hope we're not missing slam/grand.

[mw64ahw]

Club Acol players have a tendency to role out Gerber here.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I would bid 3NT.

Obv. with the right cards, you can make anything,
but playing Acol, 3D could be a 6 carder with 15HCP,
maybe even 14HCP.

If you cannot stand missing a slam, bid 4D, this is obv.
a slam move, whatever the followups may be.

If you are a scratch partnership, you pay up.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[apollo1201]

Calling a stiff honor a misfit facing a strong 6-carder is a bit exaggerated.

I am with Eagles, 4NT is quantitative but a scratch partner might reply their keys.

Realistically, giving partner AKJ 6th, the SA and a rounded K only make 11 tricks with some little possibilities or a 12th. With SQ and the 2 kings, it gets better although the hand looks less promising.

If in Acol this is already asking almost too much, we d better bid 3NT especially with a scratch partner and the délicate follow ups or judgments where both partners need to be on the same page re invites, accepts, etc.

[DavidKok]

Jumping is bad. Jumping without a fit is worse. I think it is good to reserve 3♦ for a relatively narrow range of hands, so that responder doesn't have too much trouble assessing degree of fit or partscore versus game versus slam at a point of no return. I think 4NT is best, but 3NT is fine though a little pessimistic opposite my 3♦ range.

In standard people sometimes have to invent a reverse or jump shift to show the even stronger hands. There are modern solutions to address this, but they are not very widely adopted.

[AL78]

I thought slam might be a possibility, but a singleton in partner's long suit isn't ideal, even if it is a singleton honor and at this club, people are bad at bidding slams so going down in six of something will almost certainly be a bottom. I bid 3NT which was an average plus:

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I got a spade lead so had an easy 13 tricks. Only one pair found a slam (6♦), one pair played in 3♦, it is not often you see +190 on a traveller!

[P_Marlowe]

AL78, on 2025-December-04, 13:25, said:

I thought slam might be a possibility, but a singleton in partner's long suit isn't ideal, even if it is a singleton honor and at this club, people are bad at bidding slams so going down in six of something will almost certainly be a bottom. I bid 3NT which was an average plus:

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I got a spade lead so had an easy 13 tricks. Only one pair found a slam (6♦), one pair played in 3♦, it is not often you see +190 on a traveller!

3D is ok, but would also be ok with only a 6 carder and a 3 card club suit, resulting in a 50% slam.

[P_Marlowe]

AL78, on 2025-December-04, 13:25, said:

I thought slam might be a possibility, but a singleton in partner's long suit isn't ideal, even if it is a singleton honor and at this club, people are bad at bidding slams so going down in six of something will almost certainly be a bottom. I bid 3NT which was an average plus:

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I got a spade lead so had an easy 13 tricks. Only one pair found a slam (6♦), one pair played in 3♦, it is not often you see +190 on a traveller!

3D is ok, but would also be ok with only a 6 carder and a 3 card club suit, resulting in a 50% slam.

[P_Marlowe]

AL78, on 2025-December-04, 13:25, said:

I thought slam might be a possibility, but a singleton in partner's long suit isn't ideal, even if it is a singleton honor and at this club, people are bad at bidding slams so going down in six of something will almost certainly be a bottom. I bid 3NT which was an average plus:

---

I got a spade lead so had an easy 13 tricks. Only one pair found a slam (6♦), one pair played in 3♦, it is not often you see +190 on a traveller!

3D is ok, but would also be ok with only a 6 carder and a 3 card club suit, resulting in a 50% slam.

[smerriman]

P_Marlowe, on 2025-December-04, 13:30, said:

3D is ok, but would also be ok with only a 6 carder and a 3 card club suit, resulting in a 50% slam.

Would be more than 50%, there are a few extra chances with squeezes / dropping a Q in the other suit.

[Cyberyeti]

P_Marlowe, on 2025-December-04, 13:30, said:

3D is ok, but would also be ok with only a 6 carder and a 3 card club suit, resulting in a 50% slam.

We distinguish those 2 hands, the 6 card suit is a 3♦ rebid, the actual hand is a 2N-3♣(semi forced)-3♦ hand

[mike777]

North has a tough hand rebid, but again too good for 3D. I would pick 2nt whatever that means in Acol.

[AL78]

mike777, on 2025-December-04, 15:28, said:

North has a tough hand rebid, but again too good for 3D. I would pick 2nt whatever that means in Acol.

It would mean 18-19 balanced.