Thursday, February 22, 2007 12:46 AM

XYZ - Natural Bidding

PITBULLS:

The strong jump shift by responder is actually a very practical bid. The bid describes your intentions immediately and once you have the bid off your chest , you can let partner be captain of the auction. Unfortunately the strong jump shift by responder just takes up too much bidding room. Experts though are always on the look out to find places where they can recover the strong jump shift & strong jump preference & add it to their system.

Here is a hand where my teammates got to a slam off two Aces. Playing XYZ , the hand is simple to bid ♠KQx ♥J10 ♦AKQxxxx ♣J Partner opens 1♣ and you respond 1♦ . Partner rebids 1♥ so there have been 3 bids at the one level. Natural jump bids playing XYZ are strong jump shift hands. You bid 3♦ to show your slam going hand and partner signs off in 3NT. As you have shown your slam intentions , you can safely pass.

The fit showing jump was a popular strong jump shift in a bygone era. This bid is recovered by playing XYZ as jump preferences show a strong jump shift hand. You hold ♠AKxx ♥AKQxx ♦xx ♣xx and partner opens 1♦ and you respond 1♥ . Partner rebids 1♠ so you have 3 bids at the one level. XYZ applies and you bid 3♠ . You have shown the old fashioned strong jump shift hand of bidding 2♥ followed by supporting partners suit.

Jump preferences used to be strong and slam going . Partner opens 1♦ and you held ♠AKJxx ♥xx ♦AKxxx ♣x . You would jump shift to 2♠ and support diamonds . A simple way to describe your monster hand. Playing XYZ it is also simple.

1♦-P-1♠-P

1NT-P-3♦-P .

We have made 3 bids at the one level so 3♦ is a slam try. 2 way NMF is just a special case of XYZ. XYZ is a modern fix for the ugly 4^th suit forcing at the one level. Playing 4^th suit forcing you would have to bid 2♠ . Yech !!