Should my partner have initially kept silent with the following "2NT" hand?

Question

Neither side vulnerable, sitting in the second seat, my partner opened one club with the following: (s) 9 (h) 9 (d)A7543 (c)AJT987.

Third seat overcalled, two hearts (showing 6). I passed in fourth seat with a 4-4-3-2 shape and 10 high card points in the red suits. First seat also passed.

At this point, partner passed, not able to show her diamond suit, and our opponents got to their best contract (bid two hearts made three) and a top on the board.

But if partner had passed on her first opportunity to speak, couldn't she now bid 2NT (unusual)? I had only three diamonds, with which to bid three diamonds, but they were KQJ. Other pairs with our cards bid and made 4 diamonds.

Is it fair to so that partner's "premature" opening bid precluded her from making the "right" bid later? Or are there advantages of opening 1 club in her position that I have overlooked? (People in my club often open with 9-10 high card points if they have 5-5 or better in length.)

Answer 1

I think if I decide to open that hand, I have committed to "6-5 come alive". I can't pass this.

What to do? 3♦ is overbidding, sure, but it's in the mix; 3♣ is okay, but doesn't show the suits; but I think I double. If partner has a penalty double hand, my two aces will be happy for them, and it might start spade, spade ruff opposite a weak (I assume?) 2♥! If partner bids 2♠, I'll bid 3♣ now and hope to survive.

Sure, if you pass this hand, you have a great 2NT call over a 1 bid; but on this hand you won't get one, you'll get a third seat weak 2. Do you really want to say 2NT over p-p-2♥-p; p? What about p-p-2♥-p; 3♥? At least opening gets your foot in the door.

I'd love to see your hand - "4=4=3=2 10 count in the reds" could mean a lot of things. But you likely have a nice (if very minimum) double yourself; are you going to be happy if partner passes this out with 4=2=2=5 or 4=2=3=4 12 or 13? Or do you expect partner to protect-double with those hands? Your best contract, really, could be 2♠ with partner's 3=1=4=5 (if they don't guess the moysian and lead trump, at least!)

Answer 2

With 56 in the minors (or majors!) and not enough strength to reverse, it is often a good idea to open with the higher ranking suit regardless of which suit is longer.

So your partner might have opened with 1D instead. The benefit of that choice became clear. The way the auction went they would have been able to reopen with 3C, and you could have made a preference 3D, likely ending the auction.

It won't necessarily be the opponents making it awkward to bid both your suits. Even a very routine early auction of 1C(partner) - 1S(you) may make your partner squirm, knowing that your side might belong in diamonds, but now forced to rebid 2C lest they distort the strength of the hand.

Of course, you could have made a negative double. This time you would have undoubtedly been more comfortable with that action after a 1D opening. After all, you are fine with playing in a diamond contract if partner has no fit to your spades.

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This treatment is quite common. Of course, there is the risk that you end up playing in a 53 (or even 52) fit instead of a 63 fit, because partner will assume the first bid suit to be at least as long as the other. You can't have everything, but with two 5+ card suits you often want to mention them both.

It is, for obvious reasons, a better known tactic to open 1S with a minimum opening hand and 56 in the majors. But the same thinking (preparing for a rebid) can work here as well. But, never do this with 45 suits (unless systemically agreed upon with your partner), partner must be able to rely on the first suit having at least five cards.

Answer 3

My $0.02 is that yes, you should pass that hand. In fact, with even stronger hands:

• I would definitely pass ♠x ♥x ♦AQxxx ♣Axxxxx
• I would strongly consider passing ♠x ♥x ♦Axxxx ♣AQxxxx

I find a 3♣ preempt opening an acceptable option (too aggressive for my taste even NV against V, and it sacrifices a potential diamond fit, but at least it reasonably describes the hand). I do not think standard systems have an opening bid for "weak two-suiter" that includes both minors.

I definitely think opening "strong" with that hand is a mistake, unless you have a system that allows very light openings, in which case it becomes a question of "what does our system say" rather than "what should have been done with a standard system". (My system, and the one of 99%+ of players where I practice, is that you need 12 HCP + length to open, or 11HCP "and a reason".)

The main problem I see with opening your 9HCP count is that partner will push you into 3NT around 30% of the time (1), expecting you to have 11HCP, and that contract is going to be hell. Only specific hands by partner makes it: you need a stopper in both majors, and to make enough tricks with that, so the bare minimum seems to be ♠A ♥A ♣K in a 3-club hand. Most often you will go down, possibly by a lot.

(1) Rough estimation, but probably not too far off. Partner will put you in NT as soon as they have 12-18HCP with both majors stoppers and a somewhat balanced hand (2). Given your 9HCP count, "12-18HCP" is somewhere around 45%; given your minor aces, "partner stops both majors" is fairly frequent if they have those points; "somewhat balanced" (2) happens fairly often.

(2) Meaning, they do not have 4 clubs or 5 diamonds. OK, they might have a 6-card major, but 4♥ or 4♠ in 6-1 fit with 25-ish HCP is not an improvement over 3NT.

Furthermore, even if partner has 8-12HCP and you are fighting for a part score, does it really help to get in at this stage?

• If the opponents start a "constructive" auction (say, 1♥/♠ followed by 1NT, 2♦ or 2♥/♠), firstly partner might speak. If they do not, you may still intervene. This depends on your system, but coming in after an initial pass definitely describes your hand better to partner (shapely, low-point hand) than whatever convention you can cook up that pushes you to open 1♣ with both a 9HCP count and a 18HCP count.
• If LHO pre-empts partner with 2♥ or 2♠, partner might still speak. They have a good idea of where points are (you and RHO passed so are both 11HCP or lower, LHO is pre-empting so 6-10, they can see their hand). They will choose depending on their shape, their expectations to set the pre-empt, and so on. They might go wrong, but they definitely have more information than you to choose.
• Finally, if opponents find an "attack-defense" auction of pass-pass-1♥-pass-4♥ (or 2♥-4♥, or the same in spades): the question is not the contract (opponents would have found it anyway), but whether you should double. I would argue that you should not: if partner had 2 or fewer cards in the named color, and some points (10-ish?), surely they would have spoken up (by doubling for instance). Conversely, if partner did speak up (e.g. with pass-pass-1♥-X-4♥), you can double (arguable, but with 18-ish points in my line and my honors being aces, I would do it).

Even if you open, which gets you in... your rebid becomes very hard. The other comments discuss some approaches - I have no qualms with them, but frankly I think there’s no hope to fix the wrong opening bid, there’s going to be a large fraction of hands that end up in disaster. Again, the basic problem is that 1♣ is already a large range of points and shapes; if you expand it to include hands such as this one, you need very precise rebids to deal with the initial uncertainty.

The only good cases for opening strong seem to be:

• general pass when partner has 10-12HCP and a minor fit better than the opponent’s (likely) major fit, so that you would make a minor contract (or push the opponents to a failing major contract)
• partner has an incredibly fitted and shaped hand, say ♠Axx ♥x ♦KQxx ♣Kxxxx; slam is within the range of possibilities, but third-seat opponent has 7+ in either major and will preempt so hard that finding game in your line is already difficult.
• attack-defense auction, and partner has enough points to set the contract but not enough points+shape to speak up

First case is maybe 5% of cases, costs very little (depends on scoring, general strength of the field etc.), and still requires you to make delicate auction calls after the initial opening (3♣/♦X-2 is a real possibility if you and partner are not very careful). Second and third cases do cost more, but they are very rare - less than 1% of cases combined? Those numbers may be off, but the point is that they are much smaller than the double-digit percentage of bad 3NT games that you push partner into.