You pick up the North hand in today's diagram. Partner opens 1 and West passes. What is your call.

Your choices (based on your convention card) are:

2NT (Jacoby, game force, four trump)

3S (limit raise, inviting game)

4S (preemptive, usually 5 trump, 0-9 oints with a singleton).

If you bid 2NT, forcing to game, you did good. When this hand was played in a $12,000 Bridge Pro Tour Individual, most North players bid 3 and South passed. But 11 tricks were there with the help of a finesse in spades and two club ruffs. If you jumped to 4 over 1, also take full credit for getting your partnership to game.

The lesson here is that you should be very wary of inviting game with a hand that might produce game opposite a minimum opening bid. Even if the South hand was 5233 shape, with three diamond losers, game would be on a finesse, and South wouldn't even hold a full opening bid!