Wednesday, January 22, 2003 6:55 AM

Jacoby 2NT

PITBULLS:

Although an antiquated convention , the Pitbulls still have the Jacoby 2NT bid as an important part of their major suit bidding structure . There are many “souped up” versions of Jacoby 2NT centered around with the 3♣ bid as showing any weak hand even with a stiff but lets review the Pitbull version of Jacoby 2NT .

You do not use Jacoby 2NT when you have a splinter or a semi-solid 2/1 available . Axxx xx xx AKJxx is a 2♣ bid followed by a 3♠ jump rather than a Jacoby 2NT . Therefore a Jacoby 2NT is a game forcing hand that always has 4 or more trump and no suit or distributional features .

The Pitbulls have incorporated “serious 3NT” into their Jacoby 2NT structure . A jump to game is still a dog without singletons and without outside controls . A 3 of a major is not a maximum but a catch all bid that is not a serious slam try . 3NT , of course , is a serious slam try and partner must Q bid . What are jumps after a 2NT ? Jumps to show a void in the era of exclusion Blackwood is a waste . Rather then jumping to the 4 level to show a void you may as well jump to the 5 level and use exclusion Blackwood . Otherwise show your void as a singleton , if you are that ashamed of your hand.

A jump is far , far more useful to show as a two suited hand . Showing 2 suits is more important then telling partner you have a singleton . Scott and I had a hand Monday nite which shows this principle nicely. It makes slam and grand slam bidding so much simpler .

A	K	A	A
T	x	K	J
x		x	x
x

K	A	x	x
Q	J		x
J	x
x	x
x	x

I opened a spade with my 5-5 and Scott bid 2NT . If you show your singleton diamond , Scott can never be sure ( after Blackwood ) that we have 13 tricks . I could hold 3 small clubs from his perspective and where do I put them ? If I jump to 4♥ to show my 5-5 , Scott can count 13 tricks and bidding 7 spades is easy . These kind of IMPS are earned by established partnerships that have the tools to clarify their hands.

It does not require much memory work to modernize your Jacoby 2NT. The 3♣ bid is the key bid and everything else revolves around that. You know immediately that partner has a good hand if she bids a singleton. You can use 3♦ to ask for the singleton after the minimum showing bid if you really must know where it is. The version of Jacoby 2NT played around here is the original invented by Oswald Jacoby over a quarter of a century ago.