Sunday, April
17, 2005 11:27 PM
4th suit
Forcing - 2 level
PITBULLS:
4th suit forcing is clumsy at
the two level also and needs some repair work. Granovetter recommends 2NT
be considered as a 4th suit forcing rather than just invitational at
the two level. This prevents leaping to 3NT and missing minor slams. You can
still bail out to a partial so the invitational 2NT is included in this bid.
Prevents wrong siding 3NT with bad
4th suit forcing auctions. With 2NT not
forcing , relays had to be employed as fixes to describe forcing vrs
non forcing auctions. With 2NT being forcing
these fixes would no longer be needed.
A 2NT contract is not a desirable place to play anyway.
You pick up:
ª A987
© Q875
¨ K2
§
AJ2
Partner opens 1♣. You respond 1♥.
Partner rebids 2♣.
1♣ pass 1♥
pass
2♣ pass ?
What is your next call?
This means that when responder bids 2NT on his
second turn (after first responding in a new suit), it's like bidding another
new "suit" -- it's natural and forcing, showing 10 or more points.
This applies after opener has rebid anything but 1NT.
The following formula demonstrates this convention (no interference by the
opps):
Opener Responder
one of a suit one
of a suit response
any rebid but 1NT 2NT (natural, forcing one round) even a jump to 2NT
Over 2NT, opener gets to make a third bid
to complete the picture of his hand. Responder may pass a weak rebid:
1♥ - 1♠
2♦ - 2NT
3♦ - pass
If opener wants to make a forcing bid, he must bid 3♣, the fourth suit.
1♦ - 1♥
2♦ - 2NT
3♣ - pass
Responder may pass this, because it's not the fourth suit.
Sequences responder may not pass:
1♦ - 1♥
2♣ - 2N
3♦
1♥ - 1♠
2♣ - 2N
3♥
These bids are forcing, because with a weak 6-4 opener should rebid the six
immediately.
1♦ - 1♠
2♣ - 2N
3♥
This is forcing, because it's the fourth suit.
Why use New Suit 2NT?
For many reasons:
(1) You may not want to bid the fourth suit to force, because you have the
fourth suit well stopped and you want to declare the notrump ( right siding ).
(2) You may want to bid 2NT and later raise partner's
suit to force to game, rather than go through the
fourth-suit-forcing concept, because, again, you have the fourth suit well
stopped.
(3) You may want to get real information from your partner. The fourth suit
doesn't obtain real information, because it forces opener into a corner:
Opener Responder
1♦ 1♥
2♣ ?
You hold as Responder:
ªAQ ©AJTxx ¨Kxx §JTx
If you bid 2♠ and partner bids 3♣, you have no idea what he has. He is
forced to bid 3♣ with xx Qx AJxxx AQxx, because he has no spade stopper.
But when you rebid 2NT, partner can bid naturally, raising to 3NT (on this
sample hand) or rebidding a suit to show a shapely hand (for example, a minimum
5-5) or rebidding 3♠ (fourth suit) to show a strong shapely
hand.
(4) You can now use the jump to 3NT as a mild
slam invitation, a hand with 16-17 points. A 4NT bid as quantitative
showing a higher range.
Back to our preview:
ª A987
© Q875
¨ K2
§ AJ2
Partner opens 1♣. You respond 1♥.
Partner rebids 2♣.
1♣ pass 1♥ pass
2♣ pass ?
2NT, forcing.
Partner now bids 3♦. You bid 3♠ and partner bids 4♠! Are
you prepared to bid a slam now? You can actually make 7♣. But at the table, the
player with this hand bid 3NT over 2♣ and went down one.
North
ª KQ3
©
--
¨ A654
§ KQT876
West
East
ª
J2
ª T654
© AJ943
© KT62
¨
J87
¨ QT93
§
543
§
9
South
ª A987
© Q875
¨ K2
§ AJ2
1♣ pass 1♥ pass
2♣ pass 3NT (all pass)
West led the 4 of hearts. East made a nice play by returning the ten. Why pull
3NT when partner can have severe duplication of value in hearts ? Why guess
when 3NT pre-empts partner ?
What do you lose by
playing New Suit 2NT?
-----------------------------------------------------
The possibility of playing in 2NT when exactly 8 tricks are available and no
other contract at the three level is makeable. You also may get overboard
occasionally playing a 23- or 24-point 3NT (some of these contracts make,
however).