Here’s a Short Freebie

Do you play New Minor Forcing (NMF)?  Most partnerships do.  It is an easy way to find a five-three fit in the major. 

A typical sequence when partner responds 1 of a major to your 1 of a suit opener, might be 1, [P], 1, [P] and now it’s your turn to bid.  Let’s say you hold 3, 4, 4, and 2 and you opened 1 and you have a 13 point (HCP) / 7 loser (LTC) hand.  What’s your next bid?

 Should you bid 2 or 1NT.  First ask yourself did Partner have both 4 and 4. Possibly, but if she did wouldn’t she have probably bid the s first.  I’d say that’s a safe bet.  So, what you really want to know is if she has 4 or 5s.  Ask her by bidding 1NT.  With six to eight/nine HCP, she will pass and 1 NT is probably your optimum contract.

If you play New Minor Forcing she will respond 2 (the new minor) saying she has 5s.  Ah Ha!  We have found our 8 card major.  Just what we wanted.  So now the sequence has progressed to 1, [P], 1, [P], 1NT, [P], 2 and it’s your bid again.  Most people play that it takes a minimum nine HCP (usually ten) to bid NMF so let’s go with that.  Your next bid is 2 (or 3 with 15HCP/6LTC), establishing that as the trump suit.  Partner then bids according to the strength of her hand.   All in all, a good system.

But, (you guessed it) I think there’s a better way to approach these types of hands.  It’s called Two-Way Checkback.  It’s very similar to NMF with one important difference.  Wouldn’t it be nice if partner could tell you the strength of her hand on her second bid?  She can.  With invitational values, she responds 2 to your 1NT rebid or, with game-going values (12+ HCP/ 7LTC) she responds 2.  Now, as opener, you know just what to do.  You can close things out at 2 or 4, or explore slam by biding your lowest control to which partner will show her lowest control.  Then you can ask for Aces using whatever system you like.  (Exploring slam after NMF is a little trickier.)  

The bottom line is, Two-Way Checkback makes auctions more efficient by giving Responder an early opportunity to distinguish between invitational and game-forcing hands.  Try it, I think you’ll like it.