| How's cuebidding different in the fourth seat?             Ala natural, when opener begins with a possible short suit minor However, it's a different story when opener holds a 5 card major
 With only 2 bidders, 2N should show strength
         Sandwich bidders promise a filling spread unlike opponents' suits But sandwich suit bids show a real suit
 | 
    When using Michaels and the Unusual No Trump bids, what do these bids mean 
    in the balance seat? For some reason, all I’ve read only discusses these 
    two-suited bids in the direct seat.
 
    Sigh, this is one of those "it depends" (on partnership agreement) grey 
    areas.  But let's take a look at some basics.  Which of these bids might be 
    useful as natural bids? A. (1C) - 
    P - (P) - 2C; B. (1S) - 
    P - (P) - 2S; C. (1C) - 
    P - (P) - 2N; D. (1S) - 
    P - (P) - 2N; 
    A. (1C) - P - (P) - 2C;Using 2C as a natural bid makes a lot of sense – balancer can 
    freely bid the higher of two long suits, so most players agree over LHO's 1 
    minor (short suit), bidding that suit should be natural.  Note the bid 
    is alertable since bidding opponents' suit is normally considered 
    conventional
 
    B. (1S) - P - (P) - 2S;It makes no sense to play 2S as natural when the LHO would be 
    finessing the balancer.  So this must be Michaels or some other form of 
    cuebid, depending on partnership agreement.
 
     C. (1C) - P - (P) - 2N; 
    While I suppose some would bid 2N as Unusual, most players would 
    prefer to bid 2H and then rebid 3D to show a two suited hand.  
    Instead play 2 Notrump as a natural balanced hand with values approximating 
    a strong 1 Notrump opening hand.  See
    
    Bidding 2 Notrump in passout seat 
    Finally, you should also have partnership agreements on auctions as:  E. (1C) - 
    P - (1H) - 1N; F. (1C) - 
    P -  (1H) - 2C/H 
    E.  (1C) - P - (1H) - 1N;Many Duplicate player like to use "Sandwich Notrump" (long in the other 
    suits) for this bid.  In fact, the advancer could overcall 2 Notrump with an 
    even more distributional hand and good vulnerability.  Note - this bid is an 
    alertable convention.
 
    F. (1C) - P -  (1H) - 2C/H A nice treatment is the "Sandwich Overcalls" here, playing advancer’s 
    bids as purely natural.  After all, the opener may be short bidding a 
    convenient minor and responder certainly may hold a 4 card major.  
    Interestingly, this natural bid is also alertable since by definition 
    cuebids of opponent’s suit are considered some sort of conventional 
    treatment.
 
    Incidentally, Mike Lawrence did write a fine book dealing with 
    these problems - see "The 
    Complete 
    Book on Balancing in Contract Bridge".   |