Weak 2 Bids -- Responding to 2NT

WARNING! The following post talks about Pre-emptive Bidding. Pre-empts are bids used by more experienced players. If you are a new player do NOT bother reading this post. When you have played a bit more and know a bit more you can learn how to use them. For now, do not bother.

Please read these posts first to learn a little bit about pre-emptive bidding:
Pre-emptive Bidding -- An Introduction
Responding to a Weak 2

Last post talked a little bit about asking Partner for an outside feature. We talked about this hand:
♠95
♥AJ65
♦AJT
♣KQ73

and discussed some of the hands we wanted to be in 3NT in. Let's take a look at four hands Partner could have and see where we want to play.

Hand A	Hand B	Hand C	Hand D
♠KQJT76 ♥432 ♦84 ♣62	♠KQJT76 ♥K32 ♦84 ♣62	♠AKQT76 ♥432 ♦84 ♣62	♠KQJT76 ♥432 ♦K4 ♣62
♠95 ♥AJ65 ♦AJT ♣KQ73	♠95 ♥AJ65 ♦AJT ♣KQ73	♠95 ♥AJ65 ♦AJT ♣KQ73	♠95 ♥AJ65 ♦AJT ♣KQ73
With this hand we do NOT want to be in 3NT. The Opponents might not take their A♠ right away and then I have no way back to Dummy.	With this hand we DO want to be in 3NT. The Opponents might not take their A♠ right away but I can get back to Dummy with the K♥.	With this hand we DO want to be in 3NT. We can take six ♠ tricks if they split nicely and I should get three outside tricks.	With this hand we DO want to be in 3NT. The Opponents might not take their A♠ right away but I can get back to Dummy with the K♦.

So how do we figure that out?

We bid 2NT to ASK Partner if they have an outside feature to their hand. That means an Ace or King OUTSIDE the suit they pre-empted in. Partner can also tell us if we don't NEED an outside feature because their suit is SOOO good.

The responses are:
Partner rebids their suit if they do not have an Ace or King outside the suit and their suit is not headed by the AKQ.
If Partner has an outside Ace or King they bid 3 of the suit where they have the outside feature.
If Partner has a suit headed by the AKQ they bid 3NT.

So let's go back to those hands to see what Partner will bid over our 2NT response:

Hand A	Hand B	Hand C	Hand D
♠KQJT76 ♥432 ♦84 ♣62	♠KQJT76 ♥K32 ♦84 ♣62	♠AKQT76 ♥432 ♦84 ♣62	♠KQJT76 ♥432 ♦K4 ♣62
Partner rebids 3♠ to say they do not have an Ace or a King outside the ♠ suit. We will then PASS.	Partner rebids 3♥ to say they have the Ace♥ or the King♥. We will then bid 3NT.	Partner rebids 3NT to say they have a solid suit -- the ♠AKQxxx. We will PASS.	Partner rebids 3♦ to say they have the Ace♦ or the King♦. We will then bid 3NT.

Let's practice responding to our Partner's 2NT bid. On all the following hands you opened 2♠. Partner then bid 2NT. What is your bid?

You	Partner
2♠	2NT
???

Hand 1

♠AKT876
♥T4
♦863
♣75



Hand 2

♠KQT876
♥65
♦A84
♣85



Hand 3

♠AQJT87
♥T
♦J63
♣765



Hand 4

♠AKJ976
♥T83
♦53
♣96



Hand 5

♠AKQT86
♥97
♦9754
♣8



Hand 6

♠KQT876
♥65
♦K84
♣85



Hand 7

♠KQ8754
♥J6
♦9
♣KT95



Hand 8

♠KQT876
♥K84
♦65
♣85



Hand 9

♠AKQT86
♥423
♦754
♣8



Hand 10

♠AKJT85
♥962
♦2
♣Q64



Hand 11

♠KQT984
♥K6
♦9
♣9542



Hand 12

♠AKT987
♥74
♦T84
♣Q7



Hand 13

♠AQT975
♥65
♦K84
♣85



Hand 14

♠KQJT65
♥865
♦Q8
♣94



Hand 15

♠KQJT85
♥962
♦2
♣K64



Hand 16

♠AKQT86
♥4
♦9754
♣65



Hand 17

♠AKT974
♥87
♦97
♣J32



Hand 18

♠KQT986
♥96
♦92
♣A95



Hand 19

♠KQT985
♥A65
♦84
♣85