[benlessard]

Playing good bad or (bad good) does showing a weak/strong hand help the opponents more than your partner ?

They can get you double you (or not double you) more easily or compete (or not compete) with more effiency, since you have 2 opps and 1 partner is it such a good deal ?

Also note that using 2NT as scrambling (64) is a decent tool.

[straube]

If 3D directly invites game and/or partner to compete to the 4-level while 2N and then 3D shows you are just competing, I think that's a very useful convention to have. It helps partner much more than the opponents imo. In fact, the advance of 2S has the benefit of preventing you from a jump 3D rebid...which is pretty much what you are trying to regain by using this convention. As far as 2N for scrambling, it would also be useful, but I think partner will always have at least one diamond for you (or he would do better to pass the spade overcall and wait for a reopen) and most of the time you will have at least a 6-2 diamond fit.

[P_Marlowe]

In general, and given that overcalls / raises are getting lighter every minute,
you need tools to find out, if you have enough strength to go after your own game
contract.

If 2NT showes a good hand, doubling 2NT can easily backfire, similar if the direct
raise is purely competitive it gets harder for them to compete.
I prefer to bid the weak hands direct, but it may well be that this is a MP / IMP
thing.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[han]

If you play 2NT as G/B here you can also play it as scrambling. It seems to me that you don't lose much compared to either method by itself.

It is becoming quite common to play 2NT over 2S as either scrambling or competitive in hearts, with a direct 3H as invitational. Since hearts is not in the picture here and diamonds ranks higher than clubs it makes sense to play the same. Of course you cannot play this after a 1C opening.

[Phil]

I use G/B here (I refer to it in my notes as a "5th step" sequence), but it seems marginal to use it as G/B if we open 1♣. I could live with either takeout with diamonds (4-6 usually) or even natural.

1♦ I could go either way on, but if we had opened 1M and they had bid and raised, I would definitely want to play G/B or some variant.