There is not just one version of a 2/1 Game Forcing bidding system. There are a variety of conventional rebids that are additions to a fundamental 2/1 GF system, but there are also some fundamental response agreements that can be adjusted. One of these is the length that we promise when we respond in a minor suit at the 2-level. In the standard 2/1 system a 2♥ response shows at least a 5-card suit, a 2♦ response shows at least a 4-card suit, and 2♣ usually shows a 4+ card suit (occasionally it could be a 3-card suit). Let’s look at these responses in detail as well as an alternative response structure where we require 5 cards to bid 2♦ and then must use a 2♣ response with a large variety of hands.
Transfers are an extremely useful tool for competitive bidding. So are relay bids, like the way we use 2NT in a Lebensohl auction. We can play a useful system, like Transfer Lebensohl, in a variety of different situations. Let’s see how we can use these methods after partner opens the bidding and the opponents take away our bidding space with a Weak Jump Overcall.
When partner open the bidding with 1-minor and our RHO makes an overcall of a suit, then we need a way to describe our hand to partner. The traditional Responder tools are negative double and positive freebids, but in some auctions, there are other approaches that use transfers to give us a better way to compete as Responder. Unfortunately, we don’t have a transfer structure in every auction (when they overcall 1♠, we have very few good systems) but hopefully there will be more and more interesting development in this area of bidding theory.
When partner opens the bidding with a minor suit and right hand opponent makes a takeout double, the modern approach for many expert partnerships is to play transfer bids by the Responder. By Responder transferring to the suit with length instead of bidding it, we gain many advantages in these competitive bidding auctions. Let’s look at how we use these transfers by Responder and what they gain for us.
When partner opens the bidding with a Major suit and right hand opponent makes a takeout double, the modern approach for many expert partnerships is to play transfer bids by the Responder. By Responder transferring to the suit with length instead of bidding it, we gain many advantages in these competitive bidding auctions. Let’s look at how we use these transfers by Responder and what they gain for us.
Transfers are an extremely useful tool for competitive bidding. So are relay bids, like the way we use 2NT in a Lebensohl auction. We can play a useful system, like Transfer Lebensohl, in a variety of different situations. Let’s see how we can use these methods after partner opens the bidding and the opponents take away our bidding space with a Weak Jump Overcall.
When partner open the bidding with 1-minor and our RHO makes an overcall of a suit, then we need a way to describe our hand to partner. The traditional Responder tools are negative double and positive freebids, but in some auctions, there are other approaches that use transfers to give us a better way to compete as Responder. Unfortunately, we don’t have a transfer structure in every auction (when they overcall 1♠, we have very few good systems) but hopefully there will be more and more interesting development in this area of bidding theory.
When partner opens the bidding with a minor suit and right hand opponent makes a takeout double, the modern approach for many expert partnerships is to play transfer bids by the Responder. By Responder transferring to the suit with length instead of bidding it, we gain many advantages in these competitive bidding auctions. Let’s look at how we use these transfers by Responder and what they gain for us.
When partner opens the bidding with a Major suit and right hand opponent makes a takeout double, the modern approach for many expert partnerships is to play transfer bids by the Responder. By Responder transferring to the suit with length instead of bidding it, we gain many advantages in these competitive bidding auctions. Let’s look at how we use these transfers by Responder and what they gain for us.
When our LHO opens the bidding, partner makes a simple overcall, and Responder makes a Negative Double, then we in the position of the Advancer. We can choose to play Transfers in the position as well. By doing so, we give our selves an additional step and we often allow ourselves more ways to raise partner. These Transfer bids also cause some more difficulty for the opponents – making the meaning of their bids less clear. Let’s see how they work.
Responding to 1NT is a balancing act of showing both strength and shape while keeping the auction at a low enough level. With a game forcing hand (10+ points), the goal is usually to be able to describe our hand below 3NT, particularly with hands that are strong enough to be interested in slam. This is not a problem with relatively balanced hands, but with distributional hands it may be more difficult for Responder to show their shape and explore slam without getting the auction too high (going past 3NT). Transfer bids allow Responder to show their shape while using space efficiently. After making a transfer bid, Responder usually gets to make a second bid without the auction getting much higher - one of the most valuable parts of playing transfers. A way to further improve our use of bidding space is to play transfer bids not only on the first round of the bidding, but on the second round also after a Major-suit transfer. Let’s see how these Transfers Over Transfers work on Responder’s second bid after a Responder starts with a Jacoby Transfer.
Transfers have become a larger and larger part of both competitive and constructive bidding. These transfers help with playing the contract from correct side, but they are also effective in searching for a fit while keeping the auction at a low level. One auction where transfers by Responder can be helpful is after Opener has started with a suit opening bid at the 1-level (1X) and then made a jump rebid of 2NT – showing a balanced hand with 18-19 points. Let’s see how transfers by Responder in this auction can help our side describe our hands in the limited space below 3NT. This treatment replaces Modified Wolff Signoff after a 2NT rebid.
There are two general categories of systems against the opponents 1NT opening bids – ones that use a Double as Penalty and others that use a Double as conventional. When the opponents open the bidding with a weak 1NT we need a good method for dealing with their unusual opening bid. The most common range for a weak NT is 12-14 points, but we define 1NT to be weak if the range does not contain 16 points. Some examples: 10-12, 11-13, 11-14, 12-14, 12-15, or 13-15 points. Against these opening bids we use a system that has a penalty double. Let’s look at one fo the most interesting of these sysetm, Landy with Transfer bids.
When partner opens the bidding 1-minor (1m), a jump shift to 2-Major (2M) by Responder can be used for a variety of different hand types. Both the standard approach of a strong jump shift and the common approach of a weak jump shift leave a lot to be desired. The modern style is for good hands to go slow, which makes a strong jump shift less appealing because it eats up valuable bidding space. With players responding to a 1m opening bid with 1M more and more aggressively, this makes using a weak jump shift less common even if it is our agreement. For these reasons many experienced partnerships choose to use these jumps to 2M for other constructive bidding purposes. Let’s look at uses of these jump shifts that can help us with some problem hands for Responder.
When we use Inverted Minors to raise partner’s suit, the traditional approach is to show Major suit stoppers and determine whether we can play a notrump contract. A more sophisticated approach is to use an artificial structure that allows Opener to show their hand type and strength and allow Responder to determine where to play the final contract (and who should be declarer in notrump). A similar approach to this structure can be used in 1♦ – 2♣ auctions as well. Let’s look at some of these methods in detail.
The concept of having a conventional bid like Drury available to show a limit raise in support of partner’s Major suit when we are a passed hand is a regular part of most partnerships’ passed hand bidding structure. Given that making a 2/1 bid into a minor suit is not that attractive (or even possible!) by a passed hand, it makes sense to allocate both 2♣ and 2♦ as artificial raises of Opener’s third seat (or fourth seat) Major suit opening bid. Many partnerships that play Drury play 2-Way Drury, using one bid to show a 3-card limit raise and the other a 4-card limit raise. But a more sophisticated structure can allow us to describe even more hand types in the same bidding space.
When we are interested in slam in a suit contract but have a void in one of the side suits, it adds some complexity to our slam bidding. We may be able to make a slam missing two Aces (or a grand slam missing an Ace), if partner does not have the Ace opposite our void. When exploring slam, we want to know if partner has that Ace or has the “good Aces”, the ones opposite our losers. One way that we find out about the location of partner’s Aces is by using control showing bids. This is especially effective if we use them to show first round control (if we play that our control showing bids could be 1st or 2nd round, then we know less about which Aces partner hold). There is a gadget that we can use in some auctions that allows us to try to solve this problem. This convention, called Exclusion Keycard, asks partner for their number of Keycards (or Aces if we play Blackwood), excluding one particular Ace – the place where we are void. This Exclusion allows us to find out if partner has enough of the “right Aces” for us to make slam.
Kickback is a convention that can make slam bidding easier, in that it gives us more space to ask partner for the Queen of trump, but it can also cause problems for us in the bidding. Any time we make a game contract (like 4♥ or 4♠) a conventional bid, there is danger that we have an expensive mixup with partner. Here we look at some classic danger auctions that may come up if we choose to play Kickback and then discuss some of the common partnership agreements or philosophies for how to handle these dangerous auctions.
One of our most commonly used tools for determining if we should bid slam or not is Keycard Blackwood. The most popular version of this is 1430 Keycard. This tool allows us to exchange a lot of useful information with partner. We attempt to determine how many of the 5 Keycards we have, plus we also hope to be able to determine if we have the Queen of the trump suit. When ♠ is the trump suit, then we have plenty of bidding space to communicate, but when lower-ranking suits are the trump suit, using 4NT to ask for Keycards leaves us little room to exchange information without getting the auction too high. To fix this problem, some partnerships use Minorwood for their minor suit Keycard auctions, but this does not solve our problem in the ♥ suit. There is another approach, called Kickback, that tries to solve this problem. Let’s see how this works.
Jacoby 2NT is a useful convention, but many players choose to try to improve it. The modern expert 2NT response to a 1M opening showing a limit raise or better (LR+), instead of game forcing, has many different inventors and advocates. In Europe, it is known as Limit Sternberg while in America, Larry Cohen popularized a similar approach. Let’s see how this works and how it can help improve our bidding. This one is fun for system bidding fans!
When Opener makes a jump shift into a new suit with their second bid, it is a strong bid that creates a game forcing auction. This is a good bid because it ensures we reach game, but it is a bad bid because it eats up a lot of bidding space without fully describing our distribution. This is a problem. One of the most difficult opening hands to describe to partner is the unbalanced single-suited (one 6+card suit) hand with 18-19 HCP. This is one of the strongest hands that does not open the bidding 2♣. With this hand we usually open our suit at the 1-level and after partner responds at the 1-level, we lie in a minor suit. If our one suit is a Major, then we show our strength by making a jump shift into 3♣, even when we have very few ♣ (as few as 2 cards.) With this bid we create a game forcing auction (showing our values), but we distort our shape (partner expects that we have at least 4 cards in the ♣ suit). This can cause some confusion with partner if they have a large fit for our ♣ suit. We would like to have a way to let partner know that this jump shift is done on a single-suited hand, not on a two-suited hand. Let’s look at a system that helps us improve our jump shift methods.
When the auction begins 1m – 1NT (both bids by the opponents), it is rare that we want to compete in a minor suit. Usually in these auctions the opponents have the minors, since Responder has denied a 4-card Major. (Even if we have a 5+card minor suit, it could still be best to pass and defend 1NT.) In these auctions, it is effective to play a system geared towards the Major suits where we are most likely to have a fit. Spear is an artificial system that uses all the bids at the 2-level to show different Major suit hands. This gives us more options for how to compete in the bidding. Let’s see how it works.
Lead-directing doubles can be helpful in getting partner off to a good opening lead. These lead-directing doubles are common when the opponents make an artificial bid. When the opponents make a cuebid of our suit, a lead-directing double is also very common. Here we focus on this situation in detail to structure our agreements to allow us to communicate in the most effective way we can.
One of the most common gadgets that we use when partner opens 1NT is Stayman. We primarily use Stayman to search for a 4-4 Major suit fit. After Stayman, sometimes we want to have a way to raise partner’s suit where they cannot pass. We will want a “Forcing Raise” (similar to Jacoby 2NT or Inverted Minors) in order to find out more about Opener’s hand. This is missing from a standard bidding system. It is a valuable tool for making a slam try while keeping the auction from getting too high.
