Good-Bad 2NT

Good-Bad 2NT

Let's prefix this article with a warning. Please, no reason to read this unless you and your Partner are fully familiar with the Lebensohl concept. Elsewhere, in the System Library, we cover:

- Lebensohl after we open 1NT and they interfere

- Lebensohl after they open a Weak Two, and Partner doubles.

If these Lebensohl situations are already part of your bidding arsenal, then you are no doubt ready for the Good-Bad 2NT!

Let's start by reviewing the basic 1NT-Lebensohl situation, as illustrated by these two hands:

A. ♠ 7 B. ♠ 7

♥ 954 ♥ 94

♦ KJT985 ♦ KQJ842

♣ 753 ♣ A975

After Partner opens 1NT and RHO bids a natural 2♠, with Hand A, you have no aspirations for game, but you would surely like to compete to 3♦. With Hand B, you want to play in game … whether that game should be 3NT or 5♦ will depend to a large extent on Opener’s Spade holding. Clearly, you cannot use 3♦ for both of these hands.

Using Lebensohl, we can give up on the natural 2NT and use it as a way to double the rest of our sequences ... 2NT is used as our way of competing to the 3-level, and bidding directly at the 3-level is a stronger sequence.

Here's an example from Board 16 of the Wednesday Game, 25th Oct, 2006. The auction had started as follows:

West North East South

Pass 1♦ 1♠ Dbl

2♠ ??

This was North's hand

♠ AQ8

♥ T932

♦ Q9632

♣ A

North would like to compete to the 3-level in the 4-4 Heart fit, but she does not want to show extra values. So, she bids 2NT, requesting that Partner bids 3♣ (or 3♦, we'll come back to that later). Now, when North converts to 3♥, Partner will know that we have no extras to speak of and are merely competing. But, give us the same hand but with an extra King and we would bid 3♥ directly, inviting game.

Basic Conditions

Under what conditions does this Good-Bad 2NT apply? You'll get numerous different answers to that question, we suggest that you start with a rigorous and limiting set of rules, and then consider expanding from there. At the very least you could play Good-Bad under these conditions:

Only on by Opener

and Responder must have taken some action (but not a game-invitational bid, see below)

and Opener's RHO must have bid 2♦ or 2♥ or 2♠

Extensions

It seems reasonable to extend the aforementioned conditions to include a Takeout Doubler. If the first action by our side was a takeout Double then can operate as "Opener" in the previous definition, and the same rules can apply. There are other possible extensions, which we'll go into at a later date.

Giving Immediate Preference

Let's return to that Board 16 example from before, this time looking at it from the South side.

West North East South

Pass 1♦ 1♠ Dbl

2♠ 2NT Pass ??

This was South's hand:

♠ 2

♥ K7654

♦ J8

♣ KQ754

Partner has opened 1♦ and her 2NT says that she wants to compete at the 3-level. But in what suit? She might have a Diamond one-suiter. Or 4-card support for our Hearts. Or a minor two-suiter. It's that last case that we must be aware of when we bid over 2NT. Even though we do not know if Opener has Clubs, we must give an immediate preference between Diamonds and Clubs, just in case he does. On the actual hand, we would obviously bid 3♣ in reply to 2NT, our Clubs being way better than our Diamonds. But, let's change the hand to this:

♠ 52

♥ K7654

♦ J83

♣ K72

Now, Responder should bid on the (temporary) assumption that Opener has Diamonds and Clubs, in which case she should take an immediate preference to Diamonds. Now, if Opener bids 3♥, he obviously has Hearts not Clubs, and that is where he will play it.

The Exception

Here's an auction from the Wednesday Game of November 8th, 2006 (Board 17):

West North East South

Pass 1♦ 1♠

2♥ 2♠ ??

Is this a Good-Bad situation? No! Partner's 2♥ showed at least game-invitational values, so now 3♥ is competing, and 4♥ shows that little bit extra needed to go to game. Here's another example along the same lines:

West North East South

Pass 1♦ 1♥

2♥ 2♠ ??

Everybody appears to have a good hand on this auction, but the point here is that, as before, this is not a Good-Bad situation. West is at least game-invitational, and 2NT here would be natural.