Showing a Limit Raise as a Passed Hand can be tricky. This week we look at how our thinking (and Partner's) shifts when we are a Passed Hand showing a fit.
Constructive: Opener
When we find a Major suit fit and we are interested in game (specifically in the auction 1M – 2M), we want to have a good way to explore or invite game. The traditional way to do this is to ask for help in a side suit, using a Help Suit Game Try, HSGT. We additionally have 2NT available to make a general try for game (some play it as trump suit GT) and a raise to 3-Major to mean 1-2-3 Stop (or generally quantitative/general GT.) This structure is reasonably effective in exploring game. But it has two significant downsides:
Constructive: Responder
When the auction begins 1X – 1Y – 1NT (where X and Y are different suit bids), the modern treatment is to play Two-Way New Minor Forcing. This approach uses both 2♣* and 2♦* as artificial and forcing bids by Responder. 2♦* is an artificial game forcing bid, while 2♣* is generally used to start invitational bidding sequences.
Constructive: Responder
New Minor Forcing is an excellent convention for continuing the auction when Opener has shown a balanced hand that is weaker than opening 1NT. But after a New Minor Forcing bid, the auction often gets complicated if we don’t go straight to game. It can be confusing whether we are inviting game or trying to make a slam try – which bids are forcing and which bids are non-forcing? 2-Way New Minor Forcing is an upgrade to New Minor Forcing that allows Responder to better describe their hand and simplify and clarify the rest of the auction.
Constructive Bidding
The concept of having a conventional bid like Drury available to show a limit raise in support of partner’s Major suit when we are a passed hand is a regular part of most partnerships’ passed hand bidding structure. Given that making a 2/1 bid into a minor suit is not that attractive (or even possible!) by a passed hand, it makes sense to allocate both 2♣ and 2♦ as artificial raises of Opener’s third seat (or fourth seat) Major suit opening bid. Many partnerships that play Drury play 2-Way Drury, using one bid to show a 3-card limit raise and the other a 4-card limit raise. But a more sophisticated structure can allow us to describe even more hand types in the same bidding space.
Constructive Bidding
When we are interested in slam in a suit contract but have a void in one of the side suits, it adds some complexity to our slam bidding. We may be able to make a slam missing two Aces (or a grand slam missing an Ace), if partner does not have the Ace opposite our void. When exploring slam, we want to know if partner has that Ace or has the “good Aces”, the ones opposite our losers. One way that we find out about the location of partner’s Aces is by using control showing bids. This is especially effective if we use them to show first round control (if we play that our control showing bids could be 1st or 2nd round, then we know less about which Aces partner hold). There is a gadget that we can use in some auctions that allows us to try to solve this problem. This convention, called Exclusion Keycard, asks partner for their number of Keycards (or Aces if we play Blackwood), excluding one particular Ace – the place where we are void. This Exclusion allows us to find out if partner has enough of the “right Aces” for us to make slam.
