Minor Suit Transfers

One No Trump – Minor Suit Transfers – Part 1

After our 1NT opening, the use of Jacoby Transfers for the majors is almost universal nowadays. And extending this to include the minor suits is becoming pretty popular, too. If you are playing Jacoby Transfers, then you are building your bidding system around this starting point:

1NT 2♣ Stayman

1NT 2♦ Transfer to Hearts

1NT 2♥ Transfer to Spades

Our use of major suit transfers has freed up 2♠ for other purposes, such as something for the minors. The most common minor suit extension of the transfer principle is:

1NT 2♠ Transfer to Clubs

1NT 2NT Transfer to Diamonds

What type of hand do we need for a Minor Suit Transfer? First and foremost, you need 6 or more cards in the minor suit … 5 is not enough! And strength-wise? Just like a major suit transfer, any strength is appropriate, it all depends on the follow-up (below).

This schema raises two questions:

(a) As 2♠ is a transfer to Clubs, we have an intermediate step … we can bid 2NT along the way … or we can bid 3♣ directly. Clearly, these two bids should have different meanings. Similarly, with our 2NT transfer to Diamonds, we have two ways of getting to 3♦.

(b) As 2NT is a transfer to Diamonds, how are we supposed to invite to 3NT? How do we replace that good old-fashioned 1NT-2NT invitational sequence? We'll come to

that shortly.

Accepting the Transfer – Or Not

OK, how do we distinguish between these two sequences?

1NT 2♠ 1NT 2♠

2NT 3♣

The common style is for one of these sequences to say “I like Clubs” and the other to say “I don’t like Clubs”. A very sensible treatment! But different partnerships play it different ways, so make sure that you and your trusty Pard are on the same wave-length. Some partnerships use the so-called “pre-accept” method, whereby we make the intervening bid (in this case 2NT) to say “I like them” … and bidding the suit directly says “I don’t like them”. And then there are those who do quite the reverse, and use the “bid them if you like them” approach.

Don’t get hung up on which is the better of these two styles, it’s not that important, there are arguments both ways. Just be aware that there are different ways to play these Minor Suit Transfers, and make sure that you and your Partner are in synch. Our own preference is to “bid ‘em if we like ‘em”, and, for convenience, that’s the style we use in the rest of the examples.

The Follow-Up

Let’s look at some examples to see how we distinguish between weak, invitational and strong hands.

♠ 8 The chances are that this hand belongs in a Diamond part-score, not in

♥ J83 1NT. Playing in 2♦ is not an option, thanks to our use of Jacoby, the best

♦ JT9765 we can do is to bid 2NT, transferring to Diamonds. Partner can now bid

♣ T65 3♣ or 3♦, but, either way, we’ll end up in 3♦. As you can see, it does not

matter whether or not Opener says he likes Diamonds, we are playing in

3♦ regardless.

♠ 74 But, here is a hand where Opener’s opinion does matter. If he has some

♥ K87 kind of a fit in Diamonds, then 3NT will have a fighting chance, but with

♦ AT8743 no such fit we’ll have trouble getting those Diamonds established in No

♣ 75 Trump and would be better advised playing in 3♦ where the Diamonds
will be able to score some tricks as the trump suit. Matching up this hand

with two possible 1NT openings illustrates the point, we hope:

♠ QJ96 ♠ 74 1NT 2NT

♥ A62 ♥ K87 3♦ 3NT

♦ KJ2 ♦ AT8743 Pass

♣ A64 ♣ 75

In this auction, Opener rebids 3♦ (saying “I like ‘em”), and this Diamond fit prompts Responder to try for game. Even with just 15 opposite 7, game will make if the Diamonds can be brought home for no losers.

♠ KQJ5 ♠ 74 1NT 2NT

♥ AQJ2 ♥ K87 3♣ 3♦

♦ 96 ♦ AT8743 Pass

♣ A96 ♣ 75

But, in this auction, even though Opener has maximum values for that 1NT, he has no Diamond fit, so he bids 3♣ (saying “I don’t like ‘em”), and Responder signs off in 3♦. Opener is not allowed to take another call in this situation, Partner could easily have 6 small Diamonds and out.

♠ 74 We’ve made the previous hand a little bit stronger. Would you wheel out

♥ K8 that minor suit transfer machinery again? No, we don’t think so … here

♦ AT8743 the hand is strong enough to take a shot at game regardless. It won’t

♣ Q76 always make, but you should give it a try.

Defining a Fit

We’ve said that Opener will bid Responder’s minor with a “fit” in the suit. What defines a fit? Perhaps a good rule of thumb is a holding that has chances to bring in Axxxxx or Kxxxxx for one loser:

Ax, Kx These holdings are a fit

xx Not nearly good enough.

xxxx This is good enough, despite the absence of high cards.

Qxx Good enough.

JTx Just about good enough.

How about 3 small? The third card is useful, and we would suggest that you consider it a fit with an otherwise good hand, and a non-fit with an otherwise bad hand. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

♠ QJ96 ♠ 74 1NT 2NT

♥ AQT ♥ K87 3♦ 3NT

♦ 962 ♦ AT8743 Pass

♣ AKJ ♣ 75

This is a hand where Opener is entitled to like his 3 small Diamonds. Actually, the rest of the hand is so outstanding he might even decide that he liked his Diamonds holding two small!

♠ AKQ5 ♠ 74 1NT 2NT

♥ AT2 ♥ K87 3♣ 3♦

♦ 962 ♦ AT8743 Pass

♣ QJ6 ♣ 75

This 1NT is less appealing, surely there is a weakness in either Hearts or Clubs, and even though it looks as if we can come to 9 tricks, there a good chance they will get 5 first. Even on this hand, however, game is not hopeless, and will limp home on a Club lead if Diamonds are 2-2 and Clubs 4-4 … not great odds, but we’ve all been in worse.

How about a holding of Qx? This is a toughie! Opener has KJ5432, we like our holding, but if he has A65432 then our Q7 is no better than 87 … in fact, it’s worse, because 2 of Opener’s HCP allotment have been used up in Diamonds to no avail. Anyway, happy guessing on this one, bidding is not an exact science!

A Corollary

Note that playing Minor Suit Transfers gives up something, namely the invitational 2NT bid directly over the 1NT opening. No problem, you just go via Stayman with that type of hand, even though you do not hold a 4-card major.

1NT 2NT Transfer to Diamonds, not natural

1NT 2♣

2 any 2NT Invitational to 3NT … Responder may or may not have a 4-

card major in this sequence.

1NT 2♣

2 any 3NT In this sequence, Responder does have a 4-card major …

without one he would just have bid 3NT directly, and not bothered with Stayman.

If you have mastered the above, you have a sound working knowledge of Minor Suit Transfers. How to handle minor two-suiters and strong minor suit hands is covered in Part 2.