Thursday, July 15

Tonight we talked about a very useful adjunct to 2/1: 4th Suit Forcing.  This bid basically fills in the gaps for your Game Forcing hands when a 2/1 bid was not appropriate at your first call.  It's also relatively easy to recognize and remember (especially with the aid of bidding boxes) as it will show up as the fourth color on the table.

Basically, 4SF comes into play when Opener bids a suit, Responder bids a new suit, and Opener bids yet a thrid suit.  Responder's bid of the 4th suit is now ARTIFICIAL and GAME FORCING (and therefore ALERTABLE.)  It doesn't promise anything about the length of Responder's first suit, it just promises GF values.

EX:  1D - 1S - 2C - 2H*  (says nothing about Hearts, just GF)

Opener should continue to bid his hand naturally, including showing Responder if he has 3-card support.  Responder can bid that 4th suit again on his next bid if he did actually have it.

{Note:  It is possible to play 4th Suit Forcing for only one round, but that's not nearly as useful along with 2/1.}

There does occur a special case when the auction proceeds:  1C - 1D - 1H - 1S*.  I'm going to suggest that becuase Responder with a hand that isn't worth a second bid would have told Opener about his spades rather than his diamonds, this bid is also artificial and GF.  The auction 1C - 1D - 1H - 2S shows 5(+) Diamonds and 4 Spades and Invitational values.

:)