smerriman, on 2024-November-04, 14:51, said:
For completeness' sake, if this isn't a 2NT opener, is there a reasonable "standard" rebid after 1♣? I remember having a similar hand in the past, where I was planning to reverse into diamonds, and was flummoxed when my partner responded 1♦.
Good question. I don't think there is. With a (32)=2=6 I think you are supposed to fake jump shift into your major, which I think is every bit as terrifying as it sounds. With 2=2=3=6, or certain strong hands with 7(+) clubs, I am not sure there is a systemic rebid in standard. My bad, 2NT is likely the smallest lie then. Perhaps you could try 3
♦, though I think this should be 4=5 in the minors rather than 3=6.
Since this is the I/A forum I can go into a bit more detail. In general I think having a good continuation system over the 1
♣ and 1
♦ opening is really valuable. I sometimes joke that people open 1NT with semibalanced hands so much only because they don't know how to bid over 1m, and there is a slight truth to it if the 1m continuations have systemic rebid issues (though here the alternative is 2NT, or 2
♣-then-2NT).
As the 1m openings are the lowest ones in the system, and also the most common ones by far, it pays to have a good system over it and be very familiar with it. It will come up often, and will gain a decent amount every time it comes up. I think a big part of why people struggle to find minor suit slams (case in point, actually) is that they don't have good methods over their 1m openings, and then have to make space-consuming bids that often fail to describe the hand at the same time. Even opening 2NT is an example of this.
I like Dutch Doubleton over 1
♣ and an unbalanced 1
♦ opening with 1NT Gazzilli, but I think this is several steps too far for most players. Instead discuss Walsh style or Transfer Walsh, make agreements about your XYZ or XYNT or Checkback Stayman or other artificial rebids, discuss when you pass the 1m opening, discuss which rebids are always unbalanced, and have it clear what your jumps mean and how your inverted minor works. There is room for more artificiality here but the above is the better part of an 80/20 rule, and you can always expand from there. The inverted minor in particular has me frustrated regularly, people really seem to make that up on the go.
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