March 2025 - 53

Newer Players
Ask Jerry
BY JERRY HELMS
askjerry@jerryhelms.com
jerryhelms.com
Dear Jerry,
Recently my partner and I had
the following auction in a Swiss
team game:
1c
2s
1h
All Pass
With all suits behaving, 11
tricks in spades were routinely
available. I thought I had made
a forcing bid. My partner, who
had responded with:
sQ 5 4 2 hQ 8 6 5 d6 4 3 c8 3,
insisted that because I failed to
open 2c that my bid showed a
strong hand but was not forcing.
One of us is right! By the
way, I held:
sA K 7 3 h7 dA 5 cA K J 9 5 2
Passed Out
Dear PO,
Let's start with a simple fact. A jumpshift
by opener is not only forcing, it
is game forcing. My guess is that your
partner felt that perhaps he should
have passed the first time, rather
than taking the position to respond
on his aceless 4-count. Before getting
into the specifics of your auction,
let me provide you with a principle
that I strongly believe, sort of like a
Jerry-ism:
It is OK to take one speculative
position on a deal, but you should not
take two speculative positions on the
same deal.
Applying this to your auction,
choosing to respond 1h rather than
passing was a position, maybe even
the same one I might have made. The
next decision to pass a game-forcing
bid was a second position on the
same deal, which violates the principle.
Your partner had two options in
my opinion: 1) Pass the 1c opening
bid, 2) Respond and then respect
your game force. Once he chose to
respond, he cannot pass your gameforcing
jumpshift!
The comment about the requirement
to open 2c to create a forcing
situation doesn't really hold water.
Essentially when you open 2c you
are suggesting a hand so powerful
that your partner might pass a
one-level bid and there might still be
a game. When you open one of a suit
and partner chooses to respond, suggesting
some values, your jumpshift
says, in effect, " Now that I know that
you have a little something, my hand
is strong enough to command at least
a game contract. "
It is important to understand that
the artificial 2c opening bid shows
great strength but it does so at the
expense of not showing any sense of
direction. For this reason, experienced
players try to avoid opening an
artificial 2c bid on a distributional
two- or three-suited hand pattern.
Using your actual hand as an example,
a 2c opening bid would be an
overstatement of values and trick-taking
potential. Once your partner
opted to respond 1h, theoretically
showing at least 5 or 6 points, your
hand was strong enough to insist on
a game contract somewhere. With his
actual holding, he should jump to 4s
over your 2s jumpshift. The jump to
game would be following the principle
of fast arrival. Loosely, this means in
any auction where the final contract
must be at least game, the faster one
of us bids to game, the less interest we
express in going any higher. With a
better responding hand, like:
sQ J 4 2 hA K 6 5 d6 4 3 cQ 3,
a simple raise to 3s would be correct
to show cooperative values. On this
layout, assuming reasonable breaks,
13 tricks are likely.
I am on record that I tend to
respond to an opening one-bid if I
hold an ace and no other high-card
points. If you held the same hand,
and partner held as little as:
s5 4 hA 8 6 5 2 d6 3 c8 7 6 3,
6c is an excellent contract!
I have committed many sins at the
bridge table involving bidding and
playing. I am however proud to say
that I have never knowingly passed a
forcing bid. 2
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March 2025 | Bridge Bulletin |
53
http://www.jerryhelms.com http://clubdirectorcourse.rsvpify.com http://www.acbl.org/portfolio/ http://www.acbl.org/director-courses
March 2025

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