Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - January 25, 2021 - Stolen Jacoby Bids

 

Question: What do you when the opponent bids your Jacoby transfer bid?

Vic:

Assumption: The partners in question play both Stayman Convention & Jacoby Transfer bids over an Opening 1NT bid. This is an incredibly common agreement, even among very inexperienced players. 

Question (rephrased):  What do you do when partner opens 1NT & partner's LHO (Left Hand Opponent) makes an interfering bid? 

Answer: It depends. This two word answer is the initial answer to most bridge questions. 

What does it depend on? Your partnership agreement. 

     If you have not talked about the above scenario with partner & reached an agreement on how to deal with it, then neither one of you will be able to do anything other than guess at the meaning of any subsequent bids. 

Question: What is a good agreement?     

Answer: It depends.     What does it depend on?     The specific interfering bid. 

Scenario: The interfering bid is 2C. A very common & very simple agreement is called Stolen Bid Double (it has other names as well).

       DBL of a 2C overcall by responder tells opener that overcaller stole their bid. DBL in other words is Stayman. The remainder of the auction proceeds in normal fashion from there. Both Jacoby Transfer bids are still available & still "on".      

Scenario: The interfering bid was anything other than 2C (2D or 2H or 2S or whatever). A simple agreement in this scenario is to agree that all "Systems" are off. That is Stayman & Jacoby Transfer bids simply go away. All subsequent bids by either partner are natural (hearts means hearts - spades means spades - etc.) 

The most common agreement used by experienced players to cope with interfering bids over an Opening 1NT is called Lebensohl. It is a very sophisticated agreement, but also challenging to learn & master. Many less experienced partners agree to incorporate some, but not all, of the Lebensohl Convention calls. If you do find yourself contemplating anything beyond what is suggested above, you need to do some reading and/or solicit advice from an experienced player. 

USE STOLEN BID DBLS FOR INTERFERING BIDS OF 2C ONLY. No experienced player would use Stolen Bid DBL over any interfering bid other than 2C.

DBL of all other interfering bids should be reserved for penalty.