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Broken-suit transfers

Another idea from Terence Quested at the Pattaya bridge club.

As with all his offerings it is logical, creative, and almost certainly effective, but I have not come across it in general use and it may not have been tested at the highest level.

Let me summarise the ideas briefly, as I understand them.

The immediate responses of 3♦ and 3♥ signify a slam-try in hearts and spades respectively, based on a broken suit.

And what constitutes a broken suit?

Suffice it to say that all the examples given in the original cite either AJ8742 or KJ8742.

This leaves 3♣ and 3♠ which are used as ‘ambiguous splinters’.  That is game-forcing bids on three-suited hands.

3♠ shows the hand with a shortage in hearts and 3♣ promises a shortage in one of the other three-suits.

In each case there are various ingenious continuations which identify the hands in great detail.

The single-suited bids address the same situation as ‘Walsh transfers’ and in a more direct manner, but they are limited to just the two major suits.

For myself I am content to set the suit with a South African Texas transfer and then rely on RKCB to identify the quality of the combined trump holding.

The three-suited options do indeed fill a gap in most methods, but they are a specialist option and most will choose to pass them by.

There is no further analysis of these methods and the associated continuations on this site.  For a full analysis refer to the ‘No Trump Bidding Book’ on the Pattaya bridge club web-site.

Opener’s first bid

Context  -  Partner opened 1NT - RHO passed - intermediate and beyond - variations and extensions - three-level bids.