LEARNING CENTER

2. New Minor Forcing. Look for a 5-3 heart fit as your first priority. You might be interested in diamonds later. 

1NT. This isn't New Minor Forcing. This is opener showing a balanced hand. If responder cares about our spades, he can ask by bidding the new minor. The most important thing to remember with New Minor is that this is a convention used by the responder. 

Pass or 2. You should NOT use New Minor Forcing here, as that would promise invitational or better values. Instead, either pass 1NT or correct back to 2. This choice is a matter of style, but a 2 call says "I want to play 2". 

4. We belong in game. Partner has at least two hearts, meaning that we belong in hearts. We don't need any more information from partner to know that 4 should be the final contract. If you bid 2, you give the opponents an opportunity to make a lead directing double or exchange information. 

2. This is the classic New Minor Forcing bid. This is an artificial bid and needs to be alerted since it says nothing about diamonds. The plan is to play in game in hearts if partner shows three hearts or in notrump if partner only has two hearts. This hand epitomizes the usefulness of New Minor. Without this convention, you'd blindly try 3NT and might catch partner with: 

 KJ8  
 Q108  
 J65  
 AJ98
 

Losing five tricks in notrump and cold for 10 tricks in hearts. 

3NT. Partner has invitational values (or better). That means that we can't afford to play in a partscore. This hand was almost good enough to open 1NT, but when partner has five hearts, the heart holding becomes even more valuable. 2 is also possible if that is forcing.