Transfer bids

Introduction

There is a popular but mistaken belief that the purpose of transfers is to ensure that the correct hand gets to play the final transfers. Codswallop! The purpose of transfers is to make it easier to describe your hand accurately and end up in the correct final contract. If they also cause the contract to be played the right way round (and it is highly dubious whether they do) then that is an incidental and coincidental benefit.

Why bother with transfers?

There is no point inventing a cure for which there is no known disease. Transfer bids solve one, very specific, problem.

Responding to 1NT in standard ACOL, a new suit at the two level (except clubs) is a weakness takeout, whilst three in a new suit is forcing to game. There is very little in between. In fact, the only responses which don’t either end the auction, or commit you to game, are 2§ (Stayman) and 2NT. What if you hold an unbalanced hand which just might be worth game? Something like this:

ªK Q 7 4 3 ©2 ¨K 9 3 §Q J 10 2

3NT could be makable if partner is on a maximum for his 1NT. 4ª may be on if he has a reasonable hand with a spade fit. On the other hand, if he has just 12 points and a doubleton spade, you could live to regret bidding beyond the two level.

Stayman won’t tell you partner’s strength, nor whether he has three spades (which may be sufficient). If you bid Stayman and he responds 2©, you will have no idea how many spades he has.

This type of hand is ideally suited to transfers.

The basic method.

In their simplest form (known as “red suit”, or “Jacoby”, transfers), you show a five card, or longer, major by bidding the (red) suit immediately below it. Thus, 2¨ shows at least 5 hearts and 2© shows 5+ spades. The transfer says nothing (yet) about your strength. The bid does two things:

It tells your partner you have at least five cards in the next suit up.
It demands (in the absence of an intervening bid) that he bid 2 of that suit for you.

So, for example, after 1NT-(pass)-2©-(pass), opener must rebid 2ª. In the basic system, it matters not one jot whether his 1NT was a maximum or minimum, whether he holds five spades or just a doubleton, the correct bid is 2ª and not a penny more. Opener must not bid higher because responder’s strength is unknown. He could have a Yarborough.

The power of transfer bids is that by forcing opener to bid again, responder gets two bids in which to describe his hand.

So, what happens next?

It is responder’s second bid which actually defines his hand. The rebid falls into one of three categories: pass shows a weak hand, any 2-level bid or a single raise is a game try and anything higher is forcing to game. The detailed list of responses following 1NT-2red-2major is follows:

Pass Shows a weak hand with a five card major. The sort of hand where a standard Acol player would have made a weakness takeout. Eg. the transfer sequence 1NT-2©-2ª-pass means exactly the same as the Acol sequence 1NT-2ª and opener should not bid again.

2NT Shows the 11,12 points required for a direct raise to 2NT, but with a five card major to boot. Opener now has a number of choices. With a weak hand he can either pass the 2NT or return to 3 of partner's major – whichever seems the most likely to succeed. With maximum points but no fit, he bids 3NT. With good points and a fit he bids 4 of partner's major.

3Major Raising the target major to three, as in 1NT-2¨-2©-3©, is a game try with a hand unsuited to a NT contract. Partner may be counting a void amongst his points. Certainly, his major should be at least six cards long. Opener should pass or raise to four. 3NT is unlikely to be the correct contract.

3NT This shows a 13+ point hand which is reasonably balanced apart from its 5+ card major. Opener can pass or return to 4 of partner’s major.

New suit Any new suit from the transfer bidder is always natural, showing 4+ cards in the second suit in addition to the 5+ card suit already shown.
The only sequence in which a new suit can be bid at the 2 level is 1NT-2¨-2©-2ª. In the basic system, this shows at least 5 hearts and 4 spades together with the strength for a raise to 2NT. With a minimal hand opener may pass, or correct to 2NT or 3major. With a good points or a good fit, he can go for game in NT or either major. Note that some advanced systems assign a conventional meaning to 1NT-2¨-2©-2ª.
Any new suit at the three level is always forcing to game. For example, 1NT-2¨-2©-3¨ is a game force showing at least 5 hearts and 4 diamonds. Opener must bid again, his choices being 3NT, or supporting one of partner's suits.
Note that if the second suit is a major then it is usually exactly 4 cards long, no more, because with 5-5 in the majors and a game strength hand, responder will normally bid 1NT-2©-2ª-4©. This leaves opener the choice of passing or converting to 4ª.
Incidentally, opener should bear in mind that with a 5-4 distribution responder has, at most, four cards in the other two suits, so he had better have those well covered before choosing a NT contract.

As you get more experienced, other continuations are possible. In the words of English international Eric Crowhurst, transfer bids give you "more available bidding sequences than there are hand shapes you might usefully wish to describe". For example, what is the difference between 1NT-2©-2ª-4ª and 1NT-4ª? Regular partnerships can have hours of fun assigning delicate nuances to such sequences.

What effect do transfers have on other possible responses?

With transfers, a game going hand with a five card major can be shown by transferring and then bidding on. That frees up the immediate 3 major responses to mean something different.

If you play transfers, a direct response of 3 major over 1NT (eg. 1NT-3ª) is normally a game force with a long suit and slam ambitions (say, at least 16 points). Opener can "sign off" by bidding game (either 3NT or raising partner's major to 4) or, if he likes the slam idea, he can go on to Blackwood or (preferably) cue bid a new suit.

Another bid rendered redundant by red suit transfers is 2ª, because a spade suit is shown by a 2© transfer. Many systems assign a conventional meaning to 2ª so, to avoid confusion, beginners are advised simply not to use this bid for now.

What if the opposition intervene?

If the 1NT opening is doubled or overcalled, many players abandon transfers and bid naturally. I'm not convinced this is the best strategy but it's probably the easiest for starters.

Over a double, you can keep Stayman and transfers in your armoury if you agree to use redouble as an artificial bid showing a long minor. Opener must rebid 2§ which you can pass or convert to 2¨. This is called the "SOS Redouble".

All sorts of elaborate systems are possible after opposition intervention. See "trendy" defence to intervention over 1NT for example.

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter too much what you do provided you have discussed it with your partner and reached an agreement. What you absolutely must not do is put yourself in the position where one member of the partnership thinks 2© is a transfer but the other does not.

What do you lose by playing transfers?

Nothing in life is entirely free, but the only thing transfer bids cost you is the loss of a weak takeout into 2¨ (this is rarely a great problem provided your system allows an escape into diamonds if the 1NT is doubled). Apart from that, the only down side is a little extra complication and some fairly dire consequences on your score sheet if you forget, and treat partner’s transfer as if it were natural (or vice versa).

There are also some technical problems under current English Bridge Union rules if you attempt to make a transfer which is an insufficient bid but, unless you play in very serious company, this can safely be ignored.

What do you gain?

Most importantly, you gain the ability to show unbalanced game going hands. Two suited distributional hands can also be shown very precisely by transferring into one and then rebidding the other.

As the strength of a transfer is initially undefined, it is harder for the opposition to judge whether they can safely intervene.

In the weakness takeout situation, the strong hand plays the contract. The benefits of having your strength concealed are debatable, but the simple fact that the opening lead now comes through the weak hand and into the strong one can often be worth an extra trick.

When can you use transfers?

At first, only play transfers in immediate response to partner’s 1NT opening.

In time, and with partner's agreement, you may choose to extend your system to include transfers over 2NT openings, over 2§-2¨-2NT, or even opposite 1NT overcalls.

As ever, the only essential thing is that you and your partner are totally agreed precisely when transfers apply. If you make a mistake, there is no way out. If your natural 2¨ is alerted as a heart transfer, you will just have to keep a poker face and take your medicine. Even if ethical considerations allow it, you cannot rectify the situation by correcting 2© to 3¨ because partner will then assume you are 5-4 in the red suits and you will have dug yourself into an even bigger hole.

"Super Accepts"

Earlier I said that after, say, 1NT-2© opener should rebid 2ª "and not a penny more".

There is a school of thought which says that with a maximum hand and good four card support for the transfer suit, opener should "break the transfer" and either jump to 3ª or make some other intermediate bid.

If you would like to play these so-called super accepts, don't let me stop you. Actually, no. Do let me try to stop you.

The theory of super accepts is that they allow opener to show good support for the target suit which might enable responder to find a 4 major game which would otherwise be missed. I don't believe this is necessary. If responder has the sort of hand with which he is going to be pleased to hear your super accept, then he would have continued over the simple 2ª rebid anyway - perhaps with an invitational 3ª himself. I don't think the fear of missing game is a very real one.

On the other side of the coin, there are a number of problems with super accepts:

If responder has a truly dreadful hand, your super accept may just have taken you out of a makable 2ª into a doomed 3ª, or increased the number of undertricks (disaster at pairs).
Carrying on from the above, if partner has a really weak hand then the knowledge that you might super accept may inhibit him from doing the transfer in the first place. You could therefore end up going three off in 1NT when 2ª was a better contract.
On the more optimistic front, if partner has a really good hand, your super accept will wipe out a whole round of bidding which could have been used, perhaps, to explore the slam possibilities. For example, partner may now be unable to show his 5-4 distribution by bidding his 2^nd suit at the three level and the double fit you needed in order to make slam may be concealed forever.

So, heads you lose, tails you lose. Whether partner is weak or strong I think a super accept does more damage than good.

Minor suit transfers

With red suit transfers, you can only transfer into a major suit. Systems which allow you to transfer into any of the four suits are becoming ever more popular.

There are two main species of minor suit transfers. The one recommended by the EBU to those learning the game has the benefit of simplicity but is not a great favourite of mine. The other is used by many more experienced pairs and if you think you can master it, I recommend you don't bother with the EBU system.

Be warned, both systems use the 2NT response to 1NT as an artificial bid. Both partners must be confident and comfortable with this because, for most people, it goes against all intuition to interpret 1NT-2NT as a transfer! The commonest mistake for beginners is to miss the transfer and treat partner's 2NT as natural.

First the simple system...

EBU recommended transfer system.

In the EBU system, a response of 2NT is artificial and shows a weak hand with a long minor, but does not specify which minor. Opener must rebid 2§, which responder may pass or convert to 2¨ (which opener must pass).

So if 2NT is artificial, what do you do with a balanced 11-12? The answer is you use the 2ª bid to show (amongst other things) the balanced 11-12 hand.

After 1NT-2ª, opener's rebid must tell his partner whether he is on a maximum or minimum for his 1NT opener. With a minimum, opener simply rebids 2NT. With a maximum, opener rebids 3 of his cheapest four card suit. Why not just go to 3NT with a maximum? Because there are two possible meanings for partner's initial 2ª bid. He may have a balanced 11-12 or he may have a hand which is worth slam opposite a top of the range 1NT opener. The suit bid allows responder, if he has a slam going hand, to continue bidding suits in ascending order in the hope of finding a fit for slam purposes.

With a balanced 11-12, responder will convert opener's 3any to 3NT, or pass if opener shows a minimum by rebidding 2NT. A further suit bid from responder, or any continuation over opener's 2NT rebid, shows a hand strength in the slam zone.

This is sometimes known as the "Baron" 2ª response (one of at least three conventions named after the prolific Mr Baron).

The problem with the EBU system is that the 2NT transfer does not reveal which minor responder holds. This makes it practically impossible to develop the auction after the transfer. For example, the sequences 1NT-2NT-3§-3NT or 1NT-2NT-3§-3© are of little use because opener doesn't know whether his partner's five card suit is clubs or diamonds.

Responder is none the wiser because opener's 3§ bid is forced so he has no additional information about his partner's hand.

It is for this reason that the EBU only recommend these minor transfers for weak hands.

I have to say that the usefulness of weak-only transfers to 3 minor is, to say the least, limited – especially if you have a more sophisticated means of escape when 1NT is doubled. Particularly in pairs, you are frequently better off passing 1NT and hoping for the best. Unless partner can make at least two more tricks in the minor than he can in no trump, you are going to end up with a worse score by taking it out than you would leaving it in.

Finally, if the opposition get in on the act and bid over 2NT or the 2§ response, then once again the 1NT opener won't normally know which is his partner's long minor - information which could be vital if he ends up on opening lead.

All these problems are overcome in the more sophisticated system of four way transfers...

Full four-way transfers

In the full four-way transfer system, the 2ª response is used as a transfer specifically to clubs and 2NT is a transfer to diamonds. This defines responder's suit right from the outset. Not only does this clarify the position should a competitive auction develop, it means responder can use transfers on strong, game going hands.

For example: 1NT-2NT-3¨-3©. In this sequence, responder is showing the strength for game with at least five diamonds and four hearts. Opener can now choose between 3NT, 4© or even 5¨.

Note that both the 2ª and 2NT transfers leave a spare bid between the transfer and 3 of the target minor. For example, after 1NT-2NT no damage would result if, instead of bidding 3¨ as requested, opener rebid 3§ instead. If all responder wanted to do was escape into 3¨ he can still bid it himself.

If opener has a choice of two responses, this gives him the opportunity to give his partner some vital information about his hand. So what might partner want to know?

Point count? Perhaps. However, the accepted wisdom is that responder will be more interested to learn whether his long minor will "run" in 3NT, rather than discover opener’s strength. Opener should therefore use the intermediate bid as a sort of super-accept, showing a good fit for partner's minor. Unlike the super accepts of major transfers, this does not push us up a level of bidding.

The standard rule is that the intermediate bid shows KJ or Kxxx or better in the target minor (regardless of total point count) whilst simply completing the transfer denies these holdings.

So, for example, after 1NT-2ª (club transfer), 2NT from opener would show §KJ or §Kxxx or better. 3§ would deny these club holdings.

Following the positive rebid from opener, if responder has a weak hand he simply corrects to 3 of his minor which should be passed. Any other bid is forcing to game.

"But what about the balanced 11-12", I hear you cry. You've taken away both the natural 2NT response and the Baron 2ª.

There are two rival methods for showing a balanced hand when you are playing four way transfers so you need to discuss with your partner which one you want to use.

The simpler method only allows you to show the balanced 11-12. You will have to give up on the Baron convention. In this simple method, you show the balanced 11-12 by bidding 2§ (Stayman) and then rebidding 2NT over whatever partner responds. The slight disadvantage (other than the loss of Baron) is that after 1NT-2§-2Major-2NT, opener can no longer draw the inference that his partner has four in the unbid major. All he is showing is a balanced 11-12.

A better (and much more fun!) system, if you can remember it, is to use the sequence 1NT-2¨-2©-2ª as a purely artificial mechanism to show the Baron-style hand of 11,12 balanced or slam going hand. In other words, instead of an immediate Baron 2ª response you use a delayed 2ª response (after which the auction continues as per standard Baron).

This system deprives you of the means to show an 11,12 point hand which is 5-4 in spades and hearts, but nothing comes for free. On grounds of frequency, I think it's a small price to pay. Plus, the fun really starts when the auction goes 1NT-2¨ and the opposition then ask you what partner's 2¨ means. You can then watch their jaw drop as you explain "it's either a five card heart suit or a balanced 11-12 or a slam going hand".

Finally, note that minor suit transfers are not normally used over 2NT openings because there simply isn’t enough bidding space. If you've agreed to play transfers over 2NT then that only means red suit transfers even if you play minor suit transfers over 1NT.

Back

Pass	Shows a weak hand with a five card major. The sort of hand where a standard Acol player would have made a weakness takeout. Eg. the transfer sequence 1NT-2©-2ª-pass means exactly the same as the Acol sequence 1NT-2ª and opener should not bid again.
2NT	Shows the 11,12 points required for a direct raise to 2NT, but with a five card major to boot. Opener now has a number of choices. With a weak hand he can either pass the 2NT or return to 3 of partner's major – whichever seems the most likely to succeed. With maximum points but no fit, he bids 3NT. With good points and a fit he bids 4 of partner's major.
3Major	Raising the target major to three, as in 1NT-2¨-2©-3©, is a game try with a hand unsuited to a NT contract. Partner may be counting a void amongst his points. Certainly, his major should be at least six cards long. Opener should pass or raise to four. 3NT is unlikely to be the correct contract.
3NT	This shows a 13+ point hand which is reasonably balanced apart from its 5+ card major. Opener can pass or return to 4 of partner’s major.
New suit	Any new suit from the transfer bidder is always natural, showing 4+ cards in the second suit in addition to the 5+ card suit already shown. The only sequence in which a new suit can be bid at the 2 level is 1NT-2¨-2©-2ª. In the basic system, this shows at least 5 hearts and 4 spades together with the strength for a raise to 2NT. With a minimal hand opener may pass, or correct to 2NT or 3major. With a good points or a good fit, he can go for game in NT or either major. Note that some advanced systems assign a conventional meaning to 1NT-2¨-2©-2ª. Any new suit at the three level is always forcing to game. For example, 1NT-2¨-2©-3¨ is a game force showing at least 5 hearts and 4 diamonds. Opener must bid again, his choices being 3NT, or supporting one of partner's suits. Note that if the second suit is a major then it is usually exactly 4 cards long, no more, because with 5-5 in the majors and a game strength hand, responder will normally bid 1NT-2©-2ª-4©. This leaves opener the choice of passing or converting to 4ª. Incidentally, opener should bear in mind that with a 5-4 distribution responder has, at most, four cards in the other two suits, so he had better have those well covered before choosing a NT contract.