Initial Transfer Bid
The transfer procedure is quite simple and is described first in response to your partner's 1NT opening bid. Since a 1NT opening bid requires a balanced hand, i.e. no more than one doubleton, it promises to have at least two cards in the desired suit):
- Holding a 5-card major suit, responder would traditionally bid two, three or four of that suit depending on strength; using transfers, responder will instead bid two of the suit below the major suit
- Partner (opener) must then bid two of the next suit up (i.e. the major suit in question)
- Examples:
- 1NT - 2♦ (i.e., "I have a 5-card heart suit, please bid my suit") - opener must rebid 2♥
- 1NT - 2♥ (i.e., "I have a 5-card spade suit, please bid my suit.") - opener must rebid 2♠
Opener can super-accept the transfer by bidding three of the major with a maximum hand containing at least four cards in that major.
An immediate disadvantage of this method is that it is incompatible with a weak take out into 2♦, although as with the loss of the 2♣ weak take-out when using Stayman, this is not generally considered a serious loss.
Read more about this topic: Jacoby Transfer
Famous quotes containing the words initial, transfer and/or bid:
“Capital is a result of labor, and is used by labor to assist it in further production. Labor is the active and initial force, and labor is therefore the employer of capital.”
—Henry George (1839–1897)
“No sociologist ... should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time. One cannot with impunity try to transfer this task entirely to mechanical assistants if one wishes to figure something, even though the final result is often small indeed.”
—Max Weber (1864–1920)
“Often he bid me come and have a look
Up the brass barrel, velvet black inside,
At a star quaking in the other end.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)