[inquiry]

shanbari, on Jan 17 2005, 12:41 PM, said:

regarding to "easy" hannie mentioned above,
i would try
1H - 3S ( splinter, usually 5-6 losers)
7H, (7h bid is same logic as hannie&ben mentioned.)

fun,


shan

South is dealer so you have the hand with five spades making a splinter?

[shanbari]

ooops, not fun any more. misread the dealer.

[Winstonm]

I see a lot of discussion on responses but little to none on what constitutes a jacoby 2NT bid. In my opinion, Jacoby 2NT is used 99% of the time when holding a balanced game forcing hand with 4 trump. The value in this bid is in finding substandard-strength slams based on fits. If I hold a decent 5-card or longer suit it is surely better in slam bidding to start by bidding that suit, especially if playing 2/1 game force. Only with a weak 5-card suit and 5422 would I chose Jacoby.

That said I would then approach Jacoby as a "fit-finding bid" rather than a "strength finding bid" and I eliminate those strength showing bids. The purpose is to locate hands that play in a 30-point deck rather than a 40-point deck, meaning holding a singleton/void across from a worthless holding. The second reason is to describe hands that have great trick-taking potential, i.e., 5/5 and 6/5 hand patterns with two goodish suits.

So my Jacoby responses are pretty simple:

3C, D, H, S= singletons (3H rebid shows singleton spade, leaving more room.)
3S after 1H opening 6/5 pattern
3N=5332 pattern and suggests playing here
4C, 4D, 4H=Decent to good 5/6 card second suit with reasonable trumps.
4 of the major=minimum with no singleton

Besides simplicity, this method gives less information to the opponents.

WinstonM

[whereagles]

Well, I agree the "short suit slam" is one of J2NT priorities. But there is another type of slam, which is rarer and less explored, which J2NT should be able to pick up. That would be the "double-fit" slam, e.g.

AKxxx...Qxxx
Ax.........xx
KQxx.....Axxx
xx.........AKx

This makes only 5S, but in diamonds it makes 6D. Peanuts for a relay system, but very had to pick up with J2NT. A good J2NT structure should cater for this sort of thing. If you find these slams relevant, of course

[Gerben47]

Bidding these slams is not so easy even with Jacoby 2NT:

1♠ - 2NT
4♦ (15 - 17 with 5242)

Now it's still hard to locate the honors in time as the 5-level might not be safe.

[inquiry]

whereagles, on Feb 1 2005, 07:29 AM, said:

Well, I agree the "short suit slam" is one of J2NT priorities. But there is another type of slam, which is rarer and less explored, which J2NT should be able to pick up. That would be the "double-fit" slam, e.g.

AKxxx...Qxxx
Ax.........xx
KQxx.....Axxx
xx.........AKx

This makes only 5S, but in diamonds it makes 6D. Peanuts for a relay system, but very had to pick up with J2NT. A good J2NT structure should cater for this sort of thing. If you find these slams relevant, of course

I don't deem this hand a horrible problem. The bidding playing Jacoby 2NT plus is farily straight foward...

1♠ - 2NT
4♦ - 4♥
5♥ - 6♦
Pass

where,

2NT = limit raise of better
4♦ = natural, at least mild slam try, often 5-4 unlike normal jacoby
4♥ = last train, showing slam interest
5♥ = with KQ of ♦, and AK of ♠, point to the need for a ♣ control
6♦ = choice of contracts.
Pass =Partner knows I can have 4♦, so he has 4+ diamonds for this bid. The 4-4 fit is likely to play better than a 5-4 or 5-3 fit in spades.

Once again, the jacoby 2NT plus method is written up on the bridgematters site at http://www.bridgematters.com/jplus.htm

Ben

[Winstonm]

Quote

Well, I agree the "short suit slam" is one of J2NT priorities. But there is another type of slam, which is rarer and less explored, which J2NT should be able to pick up. That would be the "double-fit" slam, e.g.

A good point. Yes, this slam should be located. I wonder if the simple methods I employ could be improved by the use of 3N as a "serious" NT that requests partner to bid any other 4-card suit he might have? After all, it's not often that you wish to play 3NT when in a 9-card major suit fit.