Conventions - Intermediate

Intermediate Conventions

Here are some more conventions that I like and recommend. These are a little more advanced than the ones on the basic conventions page. Despite my propensity for liking complex systems (it's been said I never met a convention I didn't like, which is not true), I have selected these because they are quite useful.

Jacoby 2NT

What is it? A jump to 2NT after partner opens 1 or 1 to show a game-forcing raise in partner's major and inquire about partener's hand.

When to use it: Use Jacoby 2NT when you meet the following criteria:

At least 4-card support for partner's major
More than a game forcing hand (slam interest)
A hand that cannot splinter or make a strong jump-shift

Why use it? Imagine you are playing standard and partner opens 1. You hold a good 15 points, and 4-2-4-3 distribution. What do you do? Slam is not out of the question so a 4 signoff is out, and you are clearly too strong for 2 or 3. 3NT is right on point range, but conceals the 9-card spade fit, and a natural 2NT is a gross underbid. The solution, bid 2 and then jump-support partner's spades at your next turn. Now the auction is at 3 or 4 and you still don't know much about partner's hand. Partner also doesn't really know how strong you are. Game-forcing certainly, but are you slam invitational? Partner doesn't know if exploration beyond 4 is a good idea.

With Jacoby 2NT, you immediately establish a game-force below the 3-level, and ask partner to tell you more about his hand. This establishes a captain of the hand faster.

What happens next? The responses to the 2NT bid are as follows. Here, M is opener's major suit:

4M - probably the most common bid, it shows a minimum 1M opener and is a signoff.
3NT - Shows extras (16-18 points) and implies a balanced hand by negative inference of not bidding a new suit.
3M - Shows a very good hand (19⁺). Does not promise a 6^th card in the suit.
New suits at the 3-level - Shows a singleton or void in the bid suit.
New suits at the 4-level - Shows a good 5⁺ card second suit. Note that this also implies a singleton or void somewhere, so these bids take precedence over the 3-level bids.

It is a matter of partnership agreement whether the distributional new-suit bids show extras or are purely shape showing.

Once opener describes his hand further, responder is in a better position to know what is needed for slam and cuebid or go into Blackwood accordingly.

4^th suit (game) forcing

What is it? This is very simple. After having bid 3 of the 4 suits naturally, a bid in the 4th suit is an artificial game force. The only tricky part is after the auction: 1-1-1, where partnership agreement determines which of 1 and 2 is natural and which is gameforcing. In my experience, 1 should be natural and 2 a game force.

When to use it: Whenever the opportunity arises and there is no better bid available. That is, three of the four suits have been bid naturally, you have a game-forcing hand, and cannot make any other game-forcing bid. Note that there are other conventions that, if being used, will have other artificial game-forces available and these take precedence.

Why use it? It is rare to need to bid the 4^th suit naturally without a game-forcing hand, and far more common to be stuck for a game-forcing bid in this situation.

what happens next? A game force has been established, but strain probably has not. Further bidding should be natural to find the best game, or possibly slam.

Support Doubles

What is it? A support double is a double of an opponent's bid to show exactly 3-card support in a suit your parter bid as responder. A raise of partner's suit then promises t least 4-card support. Note that the support double is alertable, but the negative inference that the raise promises 4-cards is not.

When to use it: A support doubling situation occurs after you open 1 of a suit, partner responds with 1 of a major, and your RHO makes an overcall (most players require that this overcall is below 2 of partner's suit). A double by you in this situation shows exactly 3-card support for partner's major and a desire to compete further. Partner has only shown a 4-card suit and can use the fact that you have exactly 3-card support to pick a strain.

Why use it? Deciding whether to raise partner's suit with only 3-card support is tricky even without interference. I usually do not raise unless I have a ruffing value and cannot show a 2^nd suit (either because I don't have one or because to do so would show values I don't have). With interference, it is even more desirable to avoid getting too high on a 7-card fit. It is highly unlikely that you will want to double the opponents for penalty at such a low level, so we can use the double to distinguish between 3 and 4-card support.

What happens next? Nothing special, bidding continues naturally, but the degree of support has been communicated.

RKC Blackwood (revisited)

I already have a discussion of Blackwood and RKC Blackwood on the basic conventions page, but there can be more done with this convention. As a reminder, the basic responses are:

5 - 0 or 3 keycards
5 - 1 or 4 keycards
5 - 2 (or 5) keycards without the Q of trumps
5 - 2 (or 5) keycards and the Q of trumps

In addition, we add the following responses:

5NT - 2 keycards and an undisclosed void.
6-level bids - 3 keycards and a void in the bid suit. If the bid suit is trumps, this shows 3 keycards and a void in a higher-ranking suit.

What happens next? After the answer, there are further options based on what the response was: If the response is 5 or 5, leaving the status of the Q in doubt, making the cheapest suit bid that is not in the trump suit asks for the queen. There are various different opinions about how the responses to this go, and what follows is my preference. We break into two cases, the first is if 5X (here X is trump) is available. If so, we have:

5X - Denies the Q
5NT - shows the Q and denies any kings that could be shown below 6X.
Other suit bids below 6X - show the Q of trump, the king of the suit bid and deny all kings could have been shown more cheaply.
6X - Shows the Q and a king that could not be otherwise shown

If 5X is not available, the responses are as follows:

5NT - Denies the Q
6X - shows the Q and denies any kings that could be shown below 6X.
Other suit bids below 6X - show the Q of trump, the king of the suit bid, and deny all kings could have been shown more cheaply.

These responses enable the 4NT bidder to find out not just about the Q of trumps, but also about K that might be helpful in bidding a grand slam.

The idea of showing these specific kings is also used in another Blackwood followup called, appropriately, Specific Kings. After the original ace-ask and response, a bid of 5NT, raher than asking for numbers of kings, instead asks partner to bid the cheapest possible specific king below the trump suit. A response of 6X (X is still trump) denies all kings lower-ranked than X, where any other bid shows the king of the bid suit and denies any lower-ranked ones that were bypassed. For example, if spades are the establshed trump suit, then a response of 6 to 5NT shows the K and denies the K. Finally, if, after the specific kings answer there is still room below 6X, then such a bid by the Blackwood bidder says "go to 7 with this king." In the above example, with spades as trump, a bid of 5 over 5 says "bid 7 if you also have the K."

Ogust

What is it? A bid of 2NT after partner makes a weak 2 opening to ask partner to further describe his hand.

When / why to use it: When partner makes a weak 2 opening bid, things usually fall more into the realm of judgement than rules about points and shape. The question is whether game is likely given that partner has a long suit and a weak hand. Bidding 2NT Ogust allows partner to give a good description of his hand with one more bid, allowing responder to determine whether or not to try for game.

What happens next? After the 2NT asking bid, opener describes his hand as follows:

3 - Bad hand and bad suit.
3 - Bad hand and good suit.
3 - Good hand and bad suit.
3 - Good hand and good suit.
3NT - Solid suit (at least AKQxxx).

Here a good or bad hand is determined by point range and overall distribution. A good suit is defined as having at least 6 cards and at least 2 of the top three honors. After this response, responder proceeds to game or not, further bidding is natural.