[Phil]

Like many of you I play IJS (invitational jump shifts) in nearly all of my partnerships. In spite of this the follow ups are very fuzzy. Use 1♠ - 3♥ as a reference.

1. What is the best spade holding responder can have?
2. Is 3♠ by opener forcing?
3. What is 4m by opener? Cue (spades? Hearts? Ambiguous?) or natural?
4. Do you have a minimum suit quality requirement for 3♥?

Bonus question: what is your call with KJ9xxx A Kxx AKQ?

[Zelandakh]

Look here Phil.

[Phil]

Thanks Zel, I missed that. Not a lot of consensus on whether or not 3♠ if forcing however.

[karlson]

With hearts, you virtually always have an invite available if you start with 1n, so I play that 1♠-3♥ is 0-1♠ unless the hearts are internally solid (i.e. if you have a hand that would raise spades after 1♠-1n-2♠, start with 1n). In the minors, you don't have so much flexibility, so there's no rule, but you can use your judgment and not bid 1♠-3♦ with ♠Hx and ♦AJxxxx.

I think 3♠ should be forcing, but I've also played NF with some partners, think it doesn't matter so much.

I would bid 4♥ on the example hand pretty much no matter what my agreeements were.

[PhilKing]

Phil, on 2013-May-28, 09:33, said:

Thanks Zel, I missed that. Not a lot of consensus on whether or not 3♠ if forcing however.

Who needs consensus? The person who suggested NF now had to play 4m natural and thus had no way to cue bid for hearts.

[Zelandakh]

I thought the consensus was clear enough for 3♠ to be forcing. It was just that once Justin stepped in and said he played it that way, noone else saw the need to come in on the matter. Looking back through the thread, I have to say that I still like my transfer scheme quite a lot; but it is untested since my (currently) preferred meaning for 1♠ - 3♥ is as a mixed raise.