Fourth suit forcing (also referred to as fourth suit artificial) is a contract bridge convention that allows responder to create, at his second turn to bid, a forcing auction. A bid by responder in the fourth suit, the only remaining unbid suit, is artificial indicating that responder has no appropriate alternate bid, remains interested in the potential for a game contract and asks opener to bid again to show additional features.
Opener responds to the fourth suit forcing by (in prioritised order):
- Raising of responder's first bid suit with 3-card support,
- Bidding notrump with values in the fourth suit,
- Raising the fourth suit with four cards in that suit,
- Making the most natural rebid possible, lacking any of the above.
Fourth suit forcing is minimally forcing for one round and usually forcing to game - partnership agreement is required. Whether or not the convention is applicable if the fourth-suit bidder is a passed hand is also a matter of partnership agreement; there is no consensus amongst experts on the options as to its use being non-forcing, forcing, or forcing only after a reverse.
The convention was introduced by the British bridge author Norman Squire and is adopted by the majority of partnerships playing at competitive levels. Useful with strong game-going hands where responder has no natural forcing rebid, it is a type of game trial bid.
Famous quotes containing the words fourth, suit and/or forcing:
“The fourth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Four colly birds,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 13–15)
“One year, I’d completely lost my bearings trying to follow potty training instruction from a psychiatric expert. I was stuck on step on, which stated without an atom of irony: “Before you begin, remove all stubbornness from the child.” . . . I knew it only could have been written by someone whose suit coat was still spotless at the end of the day, not someone who had any hands-on experience with an actual two-year-old.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“If we consider what happens in conversation, in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion, in surprises, in the instructions of dreams, wherein often we see ourselves in masquerade,—the droll disguises only magnifying and enhancing a real element, and forcing it on our distinct notice,—we shall catch many hints that will broaden and lighten into knowledge of the secret of nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)