Jacoby 2NT

 

The most common method of making a game-forcing raise opposite a 1♥ or 1♠ opening bid is the Jacoby 2NT.  The standard follow-up to the forcing raise is for Opener to bid a new suit to show a singleton, to jump to game with a poor hand, and to rebid 3 of the major or 3NT with varying degress of extra values.  We'll be the first to say that these responses are not effective, please follow the link for more on this subject.  Below we have some examples of the Jacoby 2NT from past Wednesday Games.

                                                   

 

7th March, 2007               Board 11      Dealer South       None Vul

 

 

This hand is playing in some number of Spades, maybe a very large number.  How should we proceed?  The choices are:

-         Splinter of 4♦?             Not our favorite, we think that the hand is just too good, we would be nervous about passing if Partner’s next bid was 4♠, saying “I am not impressed with your Diamond shortness”.

-         A bid of 2♥?               That’s better, but Partner will never place us with such good Spade support, and a void in Diamonds, so it seems pointless to go this route.

-         Jacoby 2NT?               Yes, that would be our choice, taking charge of the auction on the grounds that our hand is very good and tough to describe accurately.

 

 

31st May, 2006                  Board 18      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

After Partner’s 1♥ opening bid, what would be your own choice of response with the West hand?

(a)    4♣?     This would be a splinter, of course, showing Heart support and Club shortness and game-going values … we don’t like to do this with a 6-card side-suit, and this hand illustrates why … after 4♣, East will see the wastage of the AK♣, and will sign-off in 4♥ … however, what makes the hand for E-W is that lovely Kx in Partner’s 6-card suit.

(b)   2♦?      It would not be unreasonable to get this suit into the auction, certainly better than the splinter.

(c)  2NT?  Yes, we prefer the Jacoby 2NT, showing Spade support and game values … we have a 5-loser hand so feel that the Jacoby take-charge approach is a better way to go.

Some partnerships play that a Jacoby 2NT denies a short side-suit, by virtue of the failure to make a Splinter.  A rather poor treatment in our opinion ... we prefer to Splinter only with the right hand-type ... and we use Jacoby on all sorts of distributions, whenever we feel that we feel that we would do better to ask rather than to tell.

 

 

13th September, 2006       Board 1      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

After Partner’s 1♠ it’s hard to imagine how we’ll stay out of slam, so the question is simply “What is the best plan for finding out about 7?”  Let’s review the options:

 

            Blackwood?    We can forget about this one, of course, if Partner shows one Ace (or Key Card),

                                     we’ll not know whether it’s the useless A♦ or the much-to-be-desired A♥.

            Splinter?         Not a good idea when we are short in two suits, and,    anyway, when we splinter we

                                     are putting Partner in charge of the auction … instead we should be taking charge, on

                                     a quest for the A♥ and a Club control (singleton or King in this instance).

            2♣?                 Again, not a good idea, in our opinion, though many might go this route … 2♣ is the

                                    start of a descriptive auction, whereby South will say “I have Clubs and Spade

                                    support” … and, again, we’ll reiterate that this is a “take-charge” type of hand.

            Jacoby 2NT?  Now we are talking!  Let’s make the bid which asks Partner to describe her hand!

 

 

11th April, 2007                Board 21      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

West’s 2NT showed a game-going raise in Spades, the so-called Jacoby 2NT.  Normally, we would show our singleton here, but not when it’s an Ace or a King, that is altogether too misleading, frequently causing Partner to mis-evaluate his own holding in that suit.  So, East declined to bid the shortness-showing 3♥ and instead bid 3♠ showing extras (he could jump directly to game with a poor hand).

 

Now, Partner bids 4♠, without taking the trouble to cue-bid along the way.  It goes without saying that he doesn’t like his hand very much!  Is our own hand worth a try anyway?  A little tempting, perhaps, but we really don’t think so, we have already announced a pretty good hand.  Partner did not splinter at his first turn, and did not cue-bid the A♣, so it looks like he needs the perfect minor suit cards, with nothing wasted in Hearts.  That’s a long shot, we’d just pass 4♠.

 

We’ve been most well-behaved lately, it’s been at least six months since we grumbled about the standard responses to the Jacoby 2NT.  Enough’s enough, grumble, grumble!  For an alternative, please follow the link.

 

 

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