birtley1, on 2015-February-23, 13:44, said:
Further thoughts. If there is a Spade fit then West can bid his 4 card spade suit after the the heart force and suit agreement again becomes established by the 3 level without contortions or esoteric agreements.
Birtley, welcome to the forums.
Your idea about rebidding spades is nice, but it doesn't work. After a strong jump shift by responder, a 2
♠ rebid by opener doesn't promise four spades...
You might be curious and ask "Why doesn't a 2
♠ rebid promise four spades?"
Because responder can't have four spades. As rmnka447 pointed out a strong jump shift shows a hand that is forcing to game and will play in one of only three denominations:
- opener's suit (clubs)
- responder's suit (hearts)
- NT
Since spades cannot be trumps anymore, a 2
♠ rebid by opener cannot suggest spades as a trump suit. Instead, 2
♠ functions as a cheap waiting bid to allow responder to clarify his hand type. All other spade bids will be control showing cuebids. (The actual West hand from the OP would be a perfect 2
♠ rebid and it doesn't have four spades.)
This whole discussion, of course, assumes that the OP was playing strong jump shifts. Though strong jump shifts are certainly not extinct, they are definitely not the standard anymore among tournament players. That means that you cannot assume that the Op was playing strong jump shifts, even if you would like that.
I would consider the weak jump shift the standard, though many strong players give the jump shift to a major a conventional meaning (e.g. a hand with 5 spades and 4 hearts and 6-9 (2
♥) or 10-11 HCPs (2
♠)) or a hand with a five card major and a fit for opener's minor. These three possible meanings for the jump shift make it easier for opener to make the most important decision in tournament bridge: Whether to play in 4M or to play in a partscore (and which partscore).
For tournament players, the strong jump shift simply is too rare to be useful, so most have replaced them by something more useful.
Rik
I want my opponents to leave my table with a smile on their face and without matchpoints on their score card - in that order.
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