Improving Jacoby 2NT

(Courtesy of Bob Crosby)

PITBULLS:

Jacoby 2NT shows a forcing major raise with 4 trump. What it does not show is a good suit as a source of tricks or you would have made a 2/1 and jumped in the major. Also, what it does not show is a singleton or else a splinter would have been a more beneficial bid.

The Jacoby 2NT is an old convention. Bergen, Martel and the Swedes have improved it. Serious 3NT theory can also assist the effectiveness of the Jacoby 2NT. The main complaint about Jacoby 2NT is that it does not show minimums or maximums with singletons. The treatment also did not show minimums very well as the jump to game opposite an unlimited hand jammed slam exploration to the 5 level. The old treatment also does not allow the Jacoby 2NT hand to explore the other hand very well. The following treatment is my opinion is a better way to play Jacoby 2NT.

The 3Club bid should be reserved to show any minimum even with singletons. This eradicates the horrible leap to game to show a minimum and allows the other hand to ask for the singleton if there is still slam interest after a shown minimum. Why show a singleton if you have a minimum and help the opponents with their lead? The principle of concealment with minimums comes into play. This leaves the opening leader in the dark as to whether declarer has a singleton or not and where it is.

If partner has slam aspirations and wants to ask for the singleton, she bids 3Diamond and you bid up the line to show your respective singletons.

With spades agreed:

With hearts agreed:

For memory purposes, the trump suit always shows the diamond splinter, 3NT always the club splinter and natural for the major splinter. With no singleton you cuebid at the 4 level. With no singleton and nothing to cuebid, you bid game.

The 3Diamond bid is reserved for all good hands with a singleton minor. Partner bids 3Heart to ask for your singleton and you reply:

With this treatment you know the singleton at the 3 level and the additional fact that partner has a good hand. Without duplication of value, cue-bidding will commence under game.

This treatment leaves the 3Heart rebid open to show the singleton in the other major with a good hand.

With spades agreed, you have the natural rebid of 3S open to show a 6 card suit minimum with no singleton.

With hearts agreed, the jump to 4H shows a 6 card suit minimum with no singleton.

Jacoby 2NT is a you tell me type of bid. If you want to reverse that process you use Serious 3NT. All good hands where you want to take control and show serious slam interest is done by Serious 3NT. This forces partner to cuebid. You may have a singleton, a void, a 6 card suit or whatever but you want to take control rather then tell partner what you have. The 3NT bid switches captaincy of the auction. This bid tells partner that the next bid (if your cue-bidding goes well) will probably be KCB Blackwood.

A jump at the 4 level shows a two suiter with minimum values. A jump at the 5 level is Exclusion Blackwood with a void. Two suiters with maximum values would probably be bid by the Serious 3NT route where you need to discover specific controls for slam.

BJ's way

BJ Trelford has come up with a new concept with Jacoby 2NT. As we play 3C to show all minimum or average type hands, all other bids are in effect Serious slam tries. If you want to reverse the master-slave relationship and take control of the auction, you can rebid the trump suit with any distribution. Normally the rebid of the trump suit shows a balanced good hand but if you have a very Serious slam try, you can break rules.

This frees the 3NT bid for other uses. The 3NT directly after partner's 2NT response shows a singleton or void in clubs with a good hand. The 3NT bid by responder after partner has shown a singleton indicates severe duplication of value (similar to fast arrival). The advantage of this according to BJ is to conserve bidding room and indicate the duplication at the lowest possible level. This means the other hand can still investigate a slam under game even with duplication of value in partner's hand. Another advantage, BJ says is that 3NT may be a possible contract with the bad duplication of value. Possibly 9 tricks will be easier than 10 with the ill fitting hand. The last advantage is that we now have a bid to show a strong club singleton immediately without forcing partner to ask and waste bidding room.

Here is the hand that I had with Perry now bid BJ's way. Perry held this hand SAQ10xxx Hx Dx CAQ109x and he opened 1S. I responded with 2NT so the obvious bid by Perry is to bid 4C which shows a two suiter. This relinquishes control to my side as he is describing his hand to me. I hold SKJxx HAJ10xx DAx CKx and I indeed take control of the auction. However, if Perry is 5-5 with a doubleton heart, I cannot bid 7 without a heart asking bid later in the auction. The solution is for Perry to take control by bidding 3S as he has the club suit and a 6-5. I must cuebid 4C after a Serious slam try as that is my lowest ranking control. Armed with the information that I fill his club suit, Perry bids KCB and bidding 7S is a simple bid. The Serious 3S keeps control of the auction to your side. If I deny a club control, Perry keeps a lid on the auction and only tries for a small slam.

We are in effect still playing Serious 3NT theory but substituting 3 of the major for 3NT. This works, so when partner bids a singleton and you have Serious slam interest just bid the trump suit and we are off to the races. Courtesy cuebids still apply and the rest of the Serious 3NT understandings, it's just that we have the Serious trump rebid to do the job instead.

1S - 2NT responses are:

1 H - 2NT responses are:

Jacoby 2NT - Two Suiters

A jump after a Jacoby 2NT should be a slam try with a 2nd suit. If you were minimum with two suits, you would not bother showing your 2nd suit and just bid 3C (principle of concealment). There are some hands that you would not bother to show your 2nd suit, because you were too strong! These hands are when you want to take control with a Serious slam try and demand that partner cuebids. The theory behind showing you two suiter is that partner can count tricks during the bidding and you get to very good slams or grand slams.

Getting partner to cuebid in your void suit ferrets out duplication of value. BJ Trelford and I had a hand that shows this nicely tonight. I held SK1098x Hvoid DKQJ10x CAJx and opened 1S. BJ bid Jacoby 2NT with Sxxxx HKJxx DAxx CKx. I showed my two suits and slam try intentions with a 4D bid. Showing a 2nd suit should be treated as a Serious slam try. BJ cuebids 4H which was I did not want to hear, so I retreat to 4S. Now the onus is on BJ if he wants to try further. I am all in with my 4D bid. BJ is minimum so he passes and we are in our best spot.

Change BJ's hand slightly and trade the KJ of hearts to the spade Ace (same HCP's). SAxxx Hxxxx DAxx CKx and we need a 2-2 trump break for a grand slam. If BJ bypasses a 4H cuebid and bids 4S, I know he does not have the King or Ace of hearts so I take control. I take control by making an initial cuebid at the 5 level. This bid is defined as Exclusion KCB. I bid 5H so this provides a problem if you do not play Exclusion KCB properly. Exclusion sequences should be 2 control KCB. If you are asking, 2 controls outside of the void suit should be the theoretical maximum. If there are 3 controls outside the void suit, you should never be asking in the first place. Here is how Exclusion KCB should work.

The first step should be zero with the queen of trump entering the picture. The first step is an or step (0, 0 ) or ( 0,1 ). In our notation, the first entry is the control and the 2nd the trump queen. The 2nd step should be (1, 0), the next step (1, 1), the next step (2, 0) and finally (2, 1). The reason for this scheme becomes clear with our hand above. Say BJ had the heart Ace as his only Ace and I bid 5H. There is no zero step with 1430 KCB until we are forced to slam! Give BJ our 2nd hand with the spade and diamond Ace but no trump queen and his response is (2, 0) which would be 6D. I now know that a grand slam is iffy so I sign off in 6. If BJ gave me the (2, 1) step, I bid our grand slam.