Sunday, March 27, 2005 3:06 PM

Limit Raise Or Better

PITBULLS:

Having a fit in Bridge is happiness. It simplifies auctions and many understandings emerge. The variance in HCP’s after announcing a fit is not serious as there are ways to announce the extra HCP’s. This is why a Q bid in Bridge shows “limit raise or better” hands. It is only with low frequency hands that game is not reached so we do not worry about those hands. We can Q bid or otherwise keep bidding to force with non limit raise hands after announcing a fit.

Tom , BJ and I have modified Jacoby 2NT to show “limit raise” or better. This works well as we have a 3♣ rebid to show all minimum hands even with a singleton. In some rare auctions we will screech to a halt and play only 3 of a major. This understanding frees up a bid that would normally have to be used to describe limit raise hands. We can now play jump raises as pre-emptive or picture bids with 4 trump as the limit raises are included along with our forcing raise with Jacoby 2NT. We do not need a Bergen 3♣ bid to describe a limit raise so we use that bid to describe any minor splinter.

There is no reason not to free your jump raises in the minors to announce pre-emptive or picture hands also . The solution is to also play inverted minors as limit raise or better. A few “escape hatch” understanding and your minor fits parallel the rest of your “fit” understandings. Announcing a fit early is a Bridge goal. Combining your limit & forcing raise in the same structure makes sense and has useful spin offs. Playing Jacoby 2NT in the minors is not a good idea. With minors , 3NT is often the holy grail. By making NT artificial with a systemic bid wrong sides 3NT games with distributional hands and makes describing partnership assets more difficult. The phrase “limit raise or better” to describe your inverted minors is a nice generalization for all your forcing raises in Bridge.

Tom , BJ and I have changed our inverted minor structure to force an immediate relay. One of the first duities after the relay is to describe a NT hand by bidding NT or a limit raise vrs a forcing raise hand. 1♣-P-2♣-P 2♦- step responses after the 2♦ relay of 2♥ showing the limit raise and 2♠ showing the forcing raise. If have described limit raise or better by the two level ! 1♦-P-2♦-P 2♥ after the 2♥ relay we have 2♠ to show the game force and 3♣ to show the limit raise in diamonds. Same idea when one bid can have multi meanings.

This inverted minor understanding better defines your 1NT to a minor bid. You do not have to go into contortions and have a huge range with these bids as you do not have a natural 2NT bid . The 2NT bid as natural often right sides the NT , describes a “queens & jacks” type of balanced hand and a narrowly defined HCP range. Gadgets can apply to 2NT as a passed hand , directly or in competition as the 2NT bid has the same understanding & HCP range in all cases. Your leap to 3NT after a minor opener is also more narrowly defined and you do not have to compensate for your lack of a natural 2NT bid.

In IMPS , I like the understanding that all bids after an invitational 2NT be forcing except the lowly club suit. How do you improve partials after a 2NT invitational bid then ? Enter the 3♣ relay in these auctions. 1♥-1♠-2NT-P is a natural bid as you have a Q bid as limit raise or better. Unless clubs were opened , 3♣ is a relay after 2NT . Let me repeat that . With all invitational 2NT bids , 3♣ is a relay to 3♦. The relay follows Lebensohl principles that the relay shows the weaker hands and natural bidding forcing to make things easy on the memory. Therefore in absence of a relay , all bids after 2NT is forcing including rebidding the suit. This assists in slam exploration. 1♥-1♠-2NT-P 3♥ is absolutely forcing and 3♥ after relaying first is not. The only exception is 1♣-P-2NT-P 3♣ is non forcing for obvious reasons.

2NT is a useless spot in Bridge to play a hand. You do not get any game bonuses for the contract and quite often is difficult to make. Bidding after an invitational 2NT without the use of a relay is very awkward . Following the 2NT contract being a useless spot idea , I like a 2NT invitational raise after a 1NT response to a major or minor as virtually forcing to game . This understanding allows relays to come into the picture and better contracts explored. After a raise of a 1NT bid after a minor to 2NT , you can add some toys to get to a good game or slam. Exploration tools like showing stoppers , the other minor or a good fit are all good possibilities.

It is a good idea to have 2NT as responder as a “new suit” one round force ( including a jump ) . This understanding assists 4^th suit forcing ideas which are pretty bad in my opinion. Opener has the obligation to describe her weak hand via a club relay after this 2NT 4^th suit bid. This is the only way we can escape to a partial as 2NT may be any HCP range. All our invitational 2NT bids have a relay associated with them no matter how they were bid. This includes a forcing 1NT after a major and then responder bidding 2NT invitational.