When we play the version of 2/1 GF that uses “2-Major Waiting” (meaning that Opener can rebid their suit without promising a 6th card), then we gain the ability to “right side” a NT contract when we have a balanced hand without a stopper in one of the suits. But, by having 2-Major be a waiting bid we make it harder for us to show our 6-card suit. Let’s see how we can add a gadget to help give us better rebid options to describe our hand.
When we choose to adopt the alternative approach to our 2/1 GF responses, “2♦ showing a 5+card suit, 2♣ being “could be short as 2 cards”, then this changes our reasonable options for rebids by the Opener. It is important that we have good agreements with partner about how this approach changes our rebid agreements. Let’s look at the hands that are simplified by these agreements and problems that are created.
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.
We round out our discussion of finding fit with Responder by looking at Responder's tool for finding fits (forcing the auction) after the Opener has shown an Unbalanced Hand - 4th Suit Game Forcing! We will see its traditional use of looking for a 5-3 fit for game, as well as using it to allow us to explore for slam.
