Andy’s Reply:

Hi Albert,

On this hand I would rebid 3♣ natural and game-force. Surprisingly, 1♥-1♠ is undoubtedly one of the most difficult auction to handle in a natural based system given the lack of forcing bids. Without any gadgets to aid you, I would only have a 3♣ game forcing jump shift left at my disposal.

Over 3♣ my partner’s bids are: 3♠ with six spades, or 3♥ with a doubleton heart (can be a tripleton too, albeit it would be a bit rare), or 3♦ “fourth suit”. If my partner does bid 3♦ I will then bid 3♠ to show a typical 3-5-1-4 shape give or take.

If my partner decides to raise my 3♣ to 4♣, I will then have to guess to bid 4♥ or 4♠ as a suggestion to play (in which partner should get the hint that my 3♣ is most likely to be a fragment). If I had a real club suit, I would have to bid 4♦ over the 4♣ raise which says nothing about a diamond control as it’s the only bid left to set clubs as trumps.

It might seem laughable, but this is where the Benjamin 2♣ opening helps (or whatever other names that have been given) showing 18-21 with a long suit. Almost all top players worldwide would not waste a 2-level opening just for these hand types as most would think they can handle it just fine by opening them at the 1-level, but surprisingly when these hands do come up, they usually become a rebid problem.

The Italians have their own invention whereby they can rebid a conventional 2♣ showing 11-15 with natural clubs or various 16+ hands (known as “Gazzilli”).

Note: A lot of Australian pairs play a jump-shift as mini splinter and therefore play a new suit as forcing. This a style that I used to play a long time ago and have come to dislike because of many many reasons. If that’s the case here on this deal, you will have no choice but to rebid 2♣ and hope that it doesn’t get passed out 🙂 (Yes, some say new suit is 100% forcing but usually most people play it as 99% forcing where in the 1% you can pass, for example if on this deal East had 5-6 points with a 5-1-5-2 or 5-1-4-3 shape. 1% may seem rare but the reality is that it happens quite often because when one person holds a long suit with 18-21 points, their partner rates to have a weak hand).

Regards,
Andy