Thursday, July 8

Wow it's been a while since I got to teach you guys - I've missed you all!

So tonight we discussed NEW MINOR FORCING, a very useful tool for finding Major suit fits.  NMF, for short, most basically applies when Opener bids 1 of a minor, Responder shows 1 of a Major, and Opener rebids 1NT.  Now 2 of the OTHER (NEW) MINOR from the Responder does a few things:

1.  Promises 10+ points.

2.  Promises 5 cards in your Major.

3.  Asks Opener to tell you more about his holdings in the Majors.

Notice I didn't say anything about the minor you just bid - this is an artificial bid.  Now, there are versions of NMF that don't promise 10+ points or a 5-card suit, but this is the basic version. 

Opener's priorities for answering your NMF question are:

1.  Show 3-card support for your Major.

2.  Show 4 cards in the other Major.

3.  Bid 2NT without either.  (This is why you need to have at least 10 points to bid NMF - you don't want partner to try to play 2NT with fewer than 22 points AND no fit.)

And that's it.  NMF is alertable, since it's an artificial bid, and since partner must bid again, you as Responder with a game-forcing hand will get your chance to show that on your next bid.  This is also another convention where the actual bidding cards on the table will help you out - look at what minor partner opened and bid the other one!  (Likewise, as Opener, if partner bids the minor you didn't open, little bells should go off in your head that this might mean something special.)

:)