Dealer
: West
Vuln : None |
CONVENTIONS
COLUMN #37
Today's convention: Forcing Limit Raises
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The
answer is pass. How could you have less?
Yet
4 is
an excellent game, needing either the
queen of spades
to fall singleton
or doubleton,
or a 3-3 diamond split. You cash the ace-king
of spades, and
if the queen doesn't fall, you play
on diamonds.
If
you held ace-third of hearts and three small
diamonds,
4 would
still be a good contract. If
East held J-10-3 of diamonds
and K-Q-6-5 of
clubs, 4 would
again be reasonable. On the
other hand, sometimes you have
mirror distribution
(doubleton facing
doubleton) and you would be
better off stopping in 3.
The
solution is a practical one: Play your limit
raises forcing!
The forcing limit raise can be
from a good 10 points to
13 points, and your
strong raise (whether you
use Jacoby 2NT or
some other convention) will start at
14 points.
You
will sometimes get overboard after the
forcing limit raise,
but you will sometimes reach
game and make it, while others
with your cards
languish in a partscore.
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