BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

Your partner opens 1NT (12-14) and responds 2 ♠ to your Stayman enquiry. What next? THE question here is do you bid 2NT or raise to game? Whichever decision you make may be wrong on the night, but it is useful to have a policy for such hands, then stick to it. If you are consistent you will gain more often than lose.

Although you have only 11HCPs plus one for two tens, your other intermediates are good and that solid five-card suit is very valuable.

So I’d always bid 3NT, except when partner didn’t like playing No Trump contracts, or didn’t play them very well.

Also whenever partner is known to be an aggressive bidder, he/she can be relied on to bid again, unless absolutely minimum.

Alternatively, there seems to be a tendency to overbid at duplicate, so if 3NT goes down, you’re unlikely to get a poor score as others will be in the same boat.