Jacoby Transfers - Slam Bidding

Jacoby Transfers – Slam Auctions

Jacoby and Texas

For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that you are playing Texas Transfers as well as Jacoby Transfers. These two auctions are Texas:

1NT 4♦ Transfer to Hearts

1NT 4♥ Transfer to Spades

With that in mind, how would you distinguish between these auctions?

1NT 4♥ 1NT 2♥
4♠ 2♠ 4♠

In the Texas auction above, Responder merely wants to play in game, and is not interested in Opener’s opinion. But, most players use the Jacoby auction as a mild slam try. Here’s an example that we have lifted directly from the Texas article.

            ♠ K74              ♠ AQJ652
            ♥ AJ74            ♥ K8
            ♦ A5                ♦ KJ6
            ♣ KT64           ♣ 72

After a 1NT opening, Responder can visualize the possibility of slam opposite a suitable hand from Partner. One way of asking Partner his opinion about slam, is to use the second of those two auctions … transfer Jacoby-style to 2♠, and then leap to game. As it happens, Opener is minimum in terms of HCPs, but he does have three trumps, a ruffing value, and good controls … so we think he should take a shot at slam. The slam is not cold, but it is favorite to make.

Here is another Texas/Jacoby situation:

1NT 4♦ 1NT 2♦

4♥ 4NT 2♥ 4NT

When we bid 4NT via Jacoby, it’s customary to play the sequence as invitational to slam … just like the 1NT 4NT sequence, except that going via Jacoby also shows 5 Spades. And 4NT after a Texas Transfer? This is usually played as Blackwood, whichever version your partnership uses.

Responder is Two-Suited

Next, consider this auction:

1NT 2♥

2♠ 3♦

We saw earlier that this sequence by Responder shows at least 5 Spades and at least 4 Diamonds, and is game forcing. After this beginning, here are Opener’s options, illustrated through some sample hands:

♠ K7 With slow values, and both unbid suits doubly stopped, this hand has

♥ QJ95 3NT written all over it. Yes, we have 4-card Diamond support, but

♦ QJ75 Responder will have to bid again to convince us that Diamonds is the

♣ AQ8 place to be.

♠ KQ5 It’s possible that 3NT is the right spot, but with such good Spades there

♥ Q7 does not seem to be any reason not to bid 4♠ directly.

♦ Q863

♣ KQJ3

♠ KT3 Spade support again, but here our values are spectacularly slammish,

♥ A3 so leaping to 4♠ would be a mistake. Bid 3♠, taking things slowly,

♦ KQ6 just in case Partner also has slam aspirations.

♣ A7643

♠ A7 Again we have Diamond support, but this time we do not have 3-card

♥ 7643 Spade support, nor do we have both of the unbid suits under control.

♦ KQ95 But we do have a slammish hand type and we should be supporting

♣ AK8 Diamonds here. The suggested way to do that is bid 3♥. This says

nothing about Hearts, it simply says “I like Diamonds and don’t want to bid 3NT”. 3♥ is the only available bid which does not take us beyond 3NT, so common practice is to use it as the Diamond-showing bid.

♠ AJ This one is especially nasty! It’s a No Trumpish hand, but no Heart

♥ J64 stop … it has Diamond support, but not a hand that would want to

♦ QJ87 encourage 5♦ or 6♦ … and it has good Spade support, albeit just two

♣ KQJ5 of them. The best move here is 3♠. Yes, the same bid that was used

earlier with a top-of-the-line slam-oriented 3-card Spade raise is also

recommended for this who-knows-where-we-belong hand. But, Partner should be aware that we may only have 2 Spades here, that we may be stuck for a bid … he should assume that we have the uncertain hand, until we tell him otherwise.

Let’s end these (rather difficult) sequences with a slam auction:

Opener Responder

♠ KT3 ♠ AQJ87

♥ A3 ♥ 8

♦ KQ6 ♦ A752

♣ A7643 ♣ K72

1NT 2♥ Opener’s 3♠ bid was, as we saw, ambiguous, but, either

2♠ 3♦ way, Responder was happy to play in Spades. He bid 4♣

3♠ 4♣ just in case Opener had the goods, and the 4♦ bid said

4♦ 4NT “Yes, I do have the goods, and also something in

5♦ 6♠ Diamonds”. Then, RKCB (1430), and the good slam was

Pass reached.

Splinters

How about these auctions?

1NT 2♥ 1NT 2♥ 1NT 2♦

2♠ 4♣/4♦ 2♠ 4♥ 2♥ 3♠

A simple agreement here is to play all of these jumps as Splinters, suggesting a slam to Opener if he has a suitable hand. Of course, Responder may be facing a doubleton in his major suit, so these bids should show a decent 6-card suit, as well as the indicated shortness and sufficient values to make slam opposite a compatible hand.

Opener Responder

♠ AQ7 ♠ KJT954

♥ KQ92 ♥ 8

♦ A7 ♦ QJ6

♣ J742 ♣ AQ6

1NT 2♥

2♠ 4♥

4♠ Pass

In the above deal, Opener certainly does have good slam values, but they diminish greatly when Responder transfers to Spades and then shows Heart shortness.

Recap

After a 1NT opening, followed by a Jacoby Transfer, our slam methods can be summarized as follows:

- Jacoby, then bidding 4 of the major, is a mild slam try (as in 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 4♠);

- Jacoby, then 4NT, is invitational to slam with 5 Spades (as in 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 4NT);

- Texas, then 4NT, is Blackwood (as in 1NT 4♦, 4♥ 4NT);

- Jacoby, then 3 of a minor, is game-forcing, often with slam interest (as in 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 3♦);

- Jacoby, then a jump in a new suit, is a Splinter (as in 1NT 2♦, 2♥ 4♣)

An Alternative Approach

The methods summarized in the recap are simple and effective enough, and you could do a lot worse than to stop reading this article right now. But, if there is a scientist lurking within your skin, then you may want to consider these (slightly obscure) tweaks to the structure, intended to improve efficiency:

- Jacoby, then 4♣ is Roman Key Card (as in 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 4♣) … getting the RKCB bid into the auction at a lower level has two advantages … firstly, it may keep us from getting to high … secondly, it gives us more space to explore with follow-up asking bids;

- Jacoby, then 3 of the other major, shows shortness somewhere … the auctions in question are 1NT 2♦, 2♥ 3♠ and 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 3♥ … if Opener has some slam potential and wants to see where is the shortness, he makes the cheapest bid … then Responder bids the shortness “up-the-line”, so that, for example, after 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 3♥ (showing shortness somewhere), the cheapest bid is 3♠ (asking for the shortness), after which 3NT is Club shortness, 4♣ is Diamond shortness, and 4♦ is Heart shortness;

- Jacoby, then 4♦, is a general slam try (as in 1NT 2♦, 2♥ 4♦) … this is not unlike the 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 4♠ auction that we discussed before.

Well, we did warn you!