Nil Vul N Dealer	♠ 5 2 ♥ K 10 5 4 ♦ Q J 6 2 ♣ K Q J
♠ A K 4 ♥ 3 ♦ A K 10 3 ♣ 9 8 7 6 3		♠ 9 7 6 ♥ Q 8 7 2 ♦ 9 8 5 ♣ A 4 2
	♠ Q J 10 8 3 ♥ A J 9 6 ♦ 7 4 ♣ 10 5

Playing Standard American the bidding was as shown with West leading a top diamond.  The contract went 1 off.  North maintained that South’s 2♥ bid was forcing.  South was convinced that it was not as he hadn’t jumped to 3♥ and that North’s hand was limited to 14 HCPs at most.  South is now showing 5 spades and  at least 4 hearts but not game going values.  What do you think?

Hi Gordon,

Technically 2♥ is not forcing as it is just a suggestion of contract (between 2♥ or 2♠ only) showing 5+♠ 4+♥. If South had jumped to 3♥, then that would show 12+points and game forcing hand. This means you are a bit stuck when you have an invitational hand.

What you’ll need to do is to take up a convention (sometimes called “Checkback” or “New Minor Forcing” or “2-way New Minor Forcing”) as this will immensely help your auctions after a 1NT rebid to show an invitational hand or better. Usually the 2♣ or the 2♦ bid over the 1NT would be the artificial bid, thus in this auction if you rebid 2♥, you can both understand it as not forcing if playing some form of a Checkback convention.

This is definitely a tricky part about natural bidding as it does seem like the 2♥ rebid is a ‘new suit’ so therefore it is ‘forcing’ but it is actually an exception! Bridge can be weird sometimes.

Hope that helps,
Andy