Jump Responses in a New Suit


Although this is dealt with in Responding to Opening Bids this is just a bit more.
In days gone by a jump in a new suit signalled enough points to go to game and could be anything from 13 points upwards and didn’t need more than 4 cards in the suit. Some of the early experts such as Culbertson advocated trick taking potential as the criteria and only suggested the lower point range with support for Partners suit

Thus a sequence such as 1 ♥ - 3 ♣ could be as good as ♠ xxx ♥ x ♦ AKx ♣ AKQxxx down to ♠xx ♥ xxxx ♦ AQx ♣ AKxx.
Many Rubber Bridge players adopted the simple theory that a jump in a new suit was game forcing and tended to do it with any opening hand of 13+ points
There are still some players today who still have this as part of their system. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with it but it does take up a lot of bidding space and modern methods suggest more accurate uses of a Jump Shift bids.

It should be emphasised that the modern way of bidding is to only jump shift with exceptional hands as there is usually easy methods to deal with most big hands without losing the game forcing option.

However if you must jump bid whenever you have 16+ points please be careful and consider the following-
You should only jump shift with one of three types of hand showing slam potential.

(1) 16 + points with a self supporting solid suit (at least 6 cards) of your own. If necessary you can bid game in your suit if no slam appears possible
Partner opens I Heart and you have ♠ AKQJ764, ♥ 6, ♦ AK3,♣ 54
The bidding should go 1 Heart - 2 Spades and then if Partners bid is anything but support in Spades (unlikely but possible) you bid 4 Spades. Partner now knows the situation and should take over (including Pass if that seems the best option)

(2) 16 + points and a good suit but with tolerance for partners suit
Partner opens I Heart and you have ♠ AKJ64, ♥ Q5 ♦ AK3,♣ 542
The bidding should go 1 Heart - 2 Spades and then if Partners rebid is in Hearts you support to 4 Hearts but if they bid 3 Clubs you can bid 3NT

(3) 16 + points a good suit and the ability to confidently bid No Trumps if Partner just repeats their suit
Partner opens I Heart and you have ♠ AK964, ♥ 5, ♦ AQ3,♣ KQ87
The bidding should go 1 Heart - 2 Spades and then if Partners rebid is in Hearts you can bid 3NT
The basic point is to invite your Partner to think about a slam below game level leaving as much room as possible to explore further.

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