Jacoby 2NT - Part 1

Jacoby 2NT - Introduction

Partner opens 1♠, how do you proceed with each of the following?

A: ♠ KT765 B: ♠ KQ765

♥ 72 ♥ A7

♦ JT43 ♦ AJT4

♣ 85 ♣ 85

With Hand A, we have lots of trumps and no defense. It’s a preemptive hand, of course, and we bid 4♠ directly, crowding the opponents’ auction. We don’t know if 4♠ will make, and, if Partner has a shapeless minimum, it surely won’t. But we do have 10 trumps between the two hands, and it would be feeble not to go to game immediately on these cards, regardless of the vulnerability.

Next consider Hand B. This one we’ll also take to game, but this time we don’t need to preempt the auction … our side has the majority of the HCPs, by far. Better to take things slowly, giving ourselves the chance to investigate slam below the level of game. This is the purpose of the Jacoby 2NT convention, which allows Responder to utilize 2NT as game-forcing and fit-showing for Partner’s one-of-a-major opening.

Requirements

There are 5 basic conditions required to make a Jacoby 2NT bid:

(a) The opening bid is 1♥ or 1♠.

(b) Responder has game-going values (in other words, an opening bid of his own).

(d) Responder is not a passed hand.

(e) There is no enemy interference.

Standard Follow-Up

After 1♠ 2NT, the “standard” responses by Opener are:

3♣, 3♦, 3♥ Each shows a singleton or void in the bid suit.

4♣, 4♦, 4♥ Each shows a good 5-card holding in the bid suit.

3♠ A good balanced hand.

3NT A decent balanced hand.

4♠ A bad balanced hand.

Note that, when you have a balanced hand, the less you bid the more you have … 3♠ is better than 3NT, which is better than 4♠. Here’s the convention in action:

♠ AKJ53 ♠ QT72

♥ T95 ♥ AK

♦ 8 ♦ 763

♣ KJ64 ♣ AQ32

Opener Responder

1♠ 2NT

3♦ 4NT

5♥ 6♠

Pass

That 3♦ response to Jacoby, showing shortness, greatly improves Responder’s hand. Now, he knows that the honors in the two hands are working well together, and can charge to slam. The 4NT in this auction was Roman Key Card Blackwood, and the 5♥ response showed 2 Key Cards without the Queen of trump.

More on Shortness

Let’s change the hand above to illustrate a couple of points. First, we’ll tweak it as follows:

Opener Responder

♠ AKJ53 ♠ QT72

♥ T95 ♥ 763

♦ 8 ♦ AK

♣ KJ64 ♣ AQ32

We have switched Responder’s Hearts and Diamonds around, so that Opener’s Diamond shortness now faces the AK♦ … this is not good! Shortness opposite strength means wasted values. So, after 1♠ 2NT, 3♦, Responder should abandon the slam hunt and go straight to 4♠. The two hands may have the same shapes and high-card values as before, but now they just don’t match up well together.

The second tweak of our original deal, moves the K♣ into the short Diamond hand as follows:

Opener Responder

♠ AKJ53 ♠ QT72

♥ T95 ♥ AK

♦ K ♦ 763

♣ J864 ♣ AQ32

More wastage! What was the highly valuable K♣, has now become the K♦, a quite useless card opposite three small. This raises the issue of whether or not we should own up to shortness when that shortness is a singleton Ace or King. We recommend that you don’t show the shortness in these cases, just as we advise against making Splinter bids with a singleton Ace or King. It’s just too misleading … Partner will expect working points in the other suits, and won’t be happy to see them wasted in the short suit.