Gerben's Bridge Blog

If you like transfers you will just love ParadoX bids. This term had been around unconciously for a long time but was introduced by Chris Ryall. After partner has made a bid that is either this or that, usually a transfer, these bids apply.

Let's see from a simple example what this means: the super-accept after 1NT + transfer.

1NT p 2♦* p 2♥ **
* NF with ♥ or forcing with ♥
** Pass if you have the NF variation.

Compare with:

1NT p 2♦* p 3♥ **
* NF with ♥ or forcing with ♥
** Want to play 3♥ if you have the NF variation.

Opener responds with the lowest bid that allows for either situation. In this case the worst situation is always the NF ♥ one, but with some bids there are several "worst" situations possible, for example:

2♦* p 2♥** / 2♠***
* Weak Two in ♥ or Weak Two in ♠
** Pass if you have ♥, might have game interest for ♠
** Pass if you have ♠, can play at least 3♥ if you have ♥

This way you are saving space and bidding rounds or transmit extra information. A clever example:
1NT (2♥) 2NT* p 3♦**
* Lebensohl: weak 1-suiter in a minor or some strong variations
** Can stand 4♣ if you have a weak 1-suiter in ♣!


try Chris Ryall's Paradox advances

Someone on the Bridge Base forums has this in their signature: "Life is a transfer, please superaccept me!" I think this is a cool statement but it also shows how important transfers are. Transfers are bidding space doublers. Let's see how that works.

Let's say you were not playing transfers after 1NT. Then if you have ♥ you bid 2♥. This is either forcing or not. If not, you cannot have a strong hand. If it is, you cannot have a weak hand. Suppose you bid 2♦ showing ♥. Partner will bid 2♥ and you can stop there with a weak hand. With the strong hand you bid again. You have combined two bids into one at the expense of one step (as 2♦ is one step lower than 2♥).

Many other situations allow this:

Opponents double your 1-level opening bid. You give up 1♦ after 1♣ or 1NT after 1♥/♠ as a natural bid and shift all other bids down 1. Now you can include both forcing and nonforcing hands into this auction.

Partner overcalls. These are called Rubens transfers. In principle an auction like (1♣) 1♠ (pass) 2♦ is a transfer to ♥, allowing you to bid both NF and forcing hands with ♥.

Partner opens 1♥. This one is called Kaplan inversion. Basically, you combine "forcing 1NT" and "1♠ response with exactly 4 cards" into one bid. For that the hands with 5 or more Spades are moved up one step.

Preemptive openings. You bid one step lower to include strong hands in your preempt. See August 13th post for an example on opening 2♣. Another example are Misho & Inquiry's MisIry transfer preempts (check the BBO Inquiry blog for that).

Responding 2♠ to 1NT. Here you can play that 2♠ shows either an invitation to 3NT (transfer to 2NT!) or some other hands. Very useful.

Some conventions are really transfers in disguise, for example:

Lebensohl / Rubensohl

Good Bad 2NT

Puppet Stayman

# posted by Gerben Dirksen @ 16:29 1 comments