Rubensohl Transfer Bids

Virtually everyone who plays regularly online will be familiar with the principle of transfer bids. Even with the most casual of partners, most of us agree to play transfers over notrump openings.

Most established partnerships have developed their methods to the extent that they would bid consistently to the correct contract if opener was always dealt a balanced hand within their opening notrump range and the opposition passed throughout. The primary reason for this accuracy is that transfers allows us to bid slowly and descriptively with good hands, while still allowing us to reach a sensible low level contract with poor hands. After opening with a suit bid, how often do you find that you or your partner jumps to show extra values, only to find that you no longer have adequate space to make sure that you bid the best game or to properly investigate slam.

In competitive auctions the problem is even more acute. How often do you fail to find a big fit because neither of you had the values to make what would have been a forcing bid?

With transfers over notrump openings now widely accepted, it is curious that more pairs have not expanded their use of these useful tools. For some reason, the use of transfers in other situations has been limited almost exclusively to expert circles. In this series of articles, I will examine some of the more common situations in which transfers can significantly improve the accuracy of your bidding. We start this two part series with a look at how modern bidding theory has advanced since the advent of Lebensohl.

Transfer methods following intervention over 1 NT are known broadly as Rubensohl, having first been published in Bridge World by Jeff Rubens in the early 1980s. Since then Kit Woolsey, Steve Robinson, Bruce Neill and Brian Senior have outlined their own versions and modifications.

First, three bidding problems. None vulnerable , playing imps, your hand is:
♠ A Q 9
♥ K Q 7 3
♦ 6 2
♣ Q 10 8 4

You open a 12-14 1 NT (although if you want to consider the problem in a 15-17 NT structure add the King of Clubs to your hand). Over LHO's two spade overcall partner bids 2 NT, Lebensohl, showing a wish to compete in one of the other three suits or some kind of strong hand. What do you now bid over RHO's three spades?

The answer is that you probably pass and hope partner has diamonds. Partner might have any of the following hands (obviously reduce these by a King opposite a Strong NT).

If partner has Hand A, we want to compete to at least four clubs as it is unlikely we can beat nine tricks in spades. Even if we save in five clubs doubled over four spades -100 will not be a disaster.

Facing Hand B, we clearly want to defend three spades, which will almost certainly go down and may go as many as three light while we may be unable to make even nine tricks in diamonds.

Opposite Hand C, we want to bid four hearts, which has ten comfortable tricks, while the opponents will probably make eight or nine in spades.

When we decided to play Lebensohl rather than natural methods in this type of auction it was because it enabled us to bid on more hands. With Lebensohl, we could make a competitive bid and a forcing bid in any suit, rather than having to choose to play suit bids as either one or the other. The underlying principle of Lebensohl is that with unbalanced hands we show our strength immediately -- a forcing bid at the three level with a game-going hand and the 2 NT relay with competitive values only.

Using transfers, these priorities are reversed -- we first show our suit and then divulge extra values if we have them later. This is a much more flexible approach since we can now utilize a second round double to show game going values if the opposition competes further. If they do not, then we can either pass partner's completion of the transfer when we only wish to compete, or we can make a further descriptive bid with game going values.

There are numerous transfer methods available for this situation, but in the easiest style to understand two-level suit bids (if available) are natural and non-forcing, while bids of Two Notrump through three of the suit below the opponents' suit are transfers. Note that the highest of these bids will be a transfer cue-bid, and we will discuss that further

So, taking the three hands above after the auction:

With Hand A we bid 2 NT (transfer to clubs -- competitive strength upwards), with Hand B we bid three clubs (transfer to diamonds), and with Hand C we bid three diamonds (transfer to hearts -- note that this should be at least invitational). If LHO passes and partner completes the transfer opposite Hands A and B we will Pass having reached what we judge to be our best spot. Holding the original notrump opening, partner will bid four hearts over our three diamond transfer and we will have reached an excellent game.

How you continue with a good hand after an initial transfer is fairly straightforward. Here are some fast examples:

Opener completes the transfer to diamonds, but responder with game values can cue bid to ask for a spade stop. When opener fails to provide one, responder knows there are two spade losers (ruling out any chance of slam) and raises to game.

Six Clubs is an excellent contract, and is quite playable even without the King of Hearts. It will not always make, but it is still where you would like to be. Note that opener does not know exactly where responder is going, but with a suitable hand he should cue bid the Heart Ace to cater for responder having slam interest as here.

Now we will see how we can use the transfer cue bid to locate both stops in the opponents' suit and to find four-four major suit fits, and how the system works against artificial overcalls. We will then move on to consider other similar competitive situations in which the same methods can be used when partner has shown or implied a balanced hand.

Thus far we looked at how we could use transfers to bid competitive one-suited hands and game-going one and two-suiters after the opponents had overcalled our 1NT opening. This month we consider how to handle balanced hands now that our familiar Lebensohl 2NT bid is being used as a transfer to clubs.

Note that the outline detailed herein is not the only one available and interested theorists will find alternative structures scattered throughout their bridge library. Let us start by looking at the methods established last month. To illustrate, let us assume the auction has started:

Using the bids detailed above, we are able to deal with any hand that wants to compete in its own suit, or with game-going hands on which you want to show a minor suit. Note that with a decent minor and a single-suited hand with no stop in the opponents' suit, you should show your minor enroute to asking for a stopper so that opener is aware of the options should he have only a tenuous stopper or none at all. However, if you show a minor and then bid 3NT yourself, your partnership might well decide this is best played as showing mild slam interest since with game interest only you would normally decide to shoot out 3NT and hope it makes.

I'll begin filling in the blanks above with a look at the transfer cue-bid (3♦ in the above auction) since the principles involved remain constant whether RHO overcalled Clubs, Diamonds or Hearts. This bid is best described as "Stop-Asking Stayman" as it is used both to find out whether we have a stop in the opponents' suit and to locate a 4-4 major suit fit.

Using Lebensohl, we saw that we needed four different sequences to show the four possible hand types -- hands with or without an unbid four-card major and hands with or without a stopper. Using transfers, the underlying principles are reversed -- responder does not show anything other than game values but asks opener to describe his hand.

In response to the Transfer Cue-bid, the first thing opener does is show whether he has a stopper in the opponents' suit. Without a stopper, he simply completes the transfer.

After the auction begins:

1. Bid 3♠ looking for a 4-4 fit (if the overcall was in a minor, then opener bids his lowest 4-card major and responder either raises or continues Baron-style). With a fit, opener raises, and without one he can bid 3NT, having already denied a stopper. Responder will either pass with a stop or pull to a minor.
2. Bid 3NT. This denies a four-card major and shows a half-stopper in the opponents' suit. Opener passes with a half stop or removes himself to a minor with no help. Note that responder almost certainly has two four-card minors for this sequence -- with 3-3-(34) and a strong hand responder would have doubled the overcall rather than look for a dubious game.
3. Bid 4♣ showing both minors (4-4) or 4♦ (5-4) and nothing in the opponents suit.
   When opener does have a stop in the opponent's suit, he makes the lowest descriptive bid beyond completing the transfer. After a 2♥ overcall, there are only two options -- 3♠ with a four-card suit in case responder was looking for a spade fit, and 3NT without four spades. If the overcall was in a minor, then opener would bid his lowest four-card major (or 3NT with no major).

Playing a 15-17 NT, we might have opened one on any of these hands:

This time the opponents overcall a natural 2♦.

With Hand A, we have no stopper and thus we simply complete the transfer to 3♦. Hopefully, responder will now show a four-card major and we can raise to game.

Similarly, with Hand B we again bid 3♦. If responder has a four-card heart suit then we will be able to raise 3♥ to game, but if partner bypasses hearts and bids 3♠ then we can bid 3NT safely having already denied a diamond stop. If responder also has no stop then he will bid on and we will either play 5♣ in a 4-4 fit or try our hand at 4♠ in the Moysian (4-3 fit).

On Hands C and D, we have a solid diamond holding and thus we must do something other than simply complete the transfer. With Hand C we bid a natural 3♠ (denying a four-card heart suit) while on Hand D we will bid 3NT, denying either major.

The exception to the two way nature of these transfer cue-bids is when the opponents have overcalled 2♠. Clearly, we cannot use a 3♥ bid both to ask for a spade stop and to find a 4-4 heart fit since there is no room below 3NT for opener to describe his hand adequately.

So, in this situation 3♥ is Stayman (showing a four-card heart suit). Opener raises with four-card support. Without heart support, opener can bid three spades with no stopper and 3NT with a suitable spade holding. Without a four-card heart suit, responder simply asks for a stopper by bidding 3♠, or shows a stop himself by jumping to the notrump game.

All that remains now is to decide on the meaning of jump bids and the direct cue-bid. As usual when the opponents have rudely interfered in our auction, we find that we do not have sufficient room to show everything we would like.

Returning to the original auction -- 1NT-(2♥)-? -- there are three hand types left to show -- a game-forcing hand with five or more spades either with or without a heart stopper, and an invitational hand with a six-card spade suit.

Since there are only two bids available -- 3♥ and 3♠ -- you must decide which hand to guess with. It seems logical to elect to forego the invitational sequence, meaning that responder must decide whether to simply compete with 2♠ or to bid game. Thus both 3♥ and 3♠ are both forcing with at least a 5-card spade suit. For ease of memory it makes sense that the actual cue-bid should deny a stop, although you can play it either way around.

If the overcall is 2♦, then now you have three bids, but two suits to show. I will leave you to work out with your regular partner exactly what each bid should show. One option is for 3♦ to show an unspecified five-card major without a diamond stop (opener bids his lowest three-card major in response) and for three of a major to be natural and forcing with a stop in the opponents' suit.

Returning to our original table, we can now flesh out the details:

After 1NT - (2♥) - ?