Dealer
: South
Vuln : North-South |
CONVENTIONS
COLUMN #11
This
Week's Convention: The weak 5-5 over 2NT
|
Archives
of all back
issues of all daily
columns are available
with Bridgetoday.com
membership (which
also includes 12
issues of Bridge
Today Magazine,
100 archive issues
of Bridge Today
Digest Online, and
one Bridge Today
University course).
Click
here for
further details
|
|
If
you have a good hand with a 5-5 shape over 2NT, you can
transfer
to one suit and then bid the other
at the four level.
But with a weak
5-5, you can't risk going past 3NT. If
you bid
both suits, partner
will think your hand is better. This convention,
created
by Al Roth,
works like this. After a 2NT opening (or 2
followed
by 2NT rebid
over a negative response), responder:
-
transfers to a major and rebids 3NT to show a weak 5-5;
- transfers to a major and rebids at the four level to show
a good 5-5;
- transfers to hearts and then rebids 3 to
show 5 hearts, a game
force,
without another five-card suit;
- starts with Stayman and rebids 3 (or
3 if
opener bids 3 and
you
are playing Smolen) with 5 spades, a game
force, without
another five-card suit.
Opposite
our example hand, South holds
A
3
A
8 7
A
K 10 3
K
Q J 2 He
removes 3NT to 4 and you reach 5 or 6.
Q
3
A
K J 8
A
K 3
K
J 10 2 He
passes and plays 3NT. |