In the card game bridge, a forcing pass is an agreement or understanding that a pass call obliges the partner to bid, double, or redouble over an intermediate opposing pass, i.e. partner must "keep the bidding open".
- ... – (act) – Pass – (Pass) – ?
Here "..." represents any beginning to the auction. The forcing pass (bold) necessarily occurs directly over an opposing bid, double, or redouble (act). After a pass over a pass, the auction might end before partner's turn.
In other words the partnership is committed to act somehow rather than to end the auction now; that is a precondition. The first, direct, "forcing pass" refers to partner the choice how to act. There is no commitment to accept partner's choice. Indeed, a forcing pass ensures that the auction will return to the one who issues it, so it may be interpreted as the first half of a two-step action by that player.
Normally double is natural where pass is forcing. That is, double suggests the current denomination and strain, doubled, as a final contract.
"Forcing pass" is also a synonym for strong pass, a conventional pass in first or second position that shows a strong hand and is "a form of opening bid" in effect. Strong pass systems are barred from many competitive events
Read more about Forcing Pass: When Is Pass Forcing?
Famous quotes containing the words forcing and/or pass:
“It is quite true, as some poets said, that the God who created man must have had a sinister sense of humor, creating him a reasonable being, yet forcing him to take this ridiculous posture, and driving him with blind craving for this ridiculous performance.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Friendship is learned by watching and listening to you. If she sees that your friends are people you like and trust and don’t pretend with—people who suit you—she probably won’t pick friends who just pass by, or people who can help her or improve her status. If you treat friends in a special way, if you are kinder, more generous, more sympathetic, more forgiving with friends, she probably will be, too.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)