Monday, July 25, 2005 11:01 AM

2♦/♥ Forcing One Round

PITBULLS:

One little tweak to your system pays big dividends to your forcing NT structure. If you play both 1♥-P-2♠-P and 1♠-P-3♥-P as weak jump shifts , you take the weak heart hands with 6 card suits out of the forcing NT structure. Also if you play a 2/1 in hearts over a spade non forcing to game when the suit is rebid , these invitational 6 card heart hand types also do not exist when you bid a forcing 1NT. You can take advantage of this and eliminate BART and really improve your forcing 1NT !

BART was invented as an either/or bid to show the tough to describe heart invitational hands or strong minor suit hands with the forcing 1NT after a spade opener. With the above heart hand types removed , you do not need the BART convention anymore with your forcing 1NT bids. Better still, you have solved the spade/diamond problem and have a “BART like” structure for those spade opening bids and forcing NT response ! These treatments were introduced to me by Bryan Maksymetz , as they are an understanding in the Maksysmetz/Jacobs system.

Since 2♥ can not exist as a weak heart hand after a forcing NT to a spade , give this bid the dual meaning of either an invitational hand with 5 hearts or a strong raise in partners bid diamond suit. In the case of diamonds rebid , it is also a relay to 2♠. OK lets start with diamonds rebid. 1♠-P-1NT-P 2♦-P-2♥-P this is a relay to 2♠ . 2♠-P-2NT-P 2NT shows the invitational heart hand and 3♦ shows the strong diamond raise. BART using the heart suit !

With clubs rebid after a spade opener , we do not need the heart relay as we can use the 2♦ bid forcing one round a la BART. 1♠-P-1NT-P 2♣-P-2♥-P is simply an invitational heart hand with a 5 card suit. If we have a strong club raise, an invitational diamond hand or a spade raise with a doubleton , we bid 2♦. Since hearts are taken out of the equation, we can bid 2♦ as showing the strong club raise or other strong hands. Partner will “pattern out’ and bid 2♥ with 3 of them and 2♠ with a stiff heart. Partner can clarify her 2♦ bid after those bids. A direct jump to 3♦ by the forcing 1NT after a 2♣ rebid shows a weak hand in diamonds. A 2NT rebid by partner after going this route shows a flat invitational hand with diamonds.

With heart openers and a forcing NT we have the luxury of a two spade bid to show the strong minor raises. With clubs rebid after a heart opener , 2♦ is still used as a forcing “noise” with 8-12 HCP. Partner can support hearts ( doubleton honour good hand ) or bid diamonds to show a weak diamond suit and good HCP’s.

Lets try an auction . Axxxx Axx AKxx x

opposite x Kx QJxxxx Axxx .

1♠-P-1NT-P 2♦-P-2♥*-P 2♠-P-3♦-P 3♥-P-4♦*-P 4♥-P-5♣-P 7♦-P-P-P J