Monday, October 8, 2007

Another Type of Picture Jump

It just dawned upon me that a strange situation might develop in a Golady sequence to enable yet another type of Picture Jump.

You open a minor, and partner bids 2C. If the opening was 1D, 2C is artificial, GF, with no 5-card major. If a 1C opening, partner might have limit only with clubs, or GF, artificial, no 5-card major. In either event, you bid one under a major, and partner accepts.

Take the simplest auction for the point:

1C-P-2C-P-
2H-P-2S-P-
???

What if Opener jumps to 3NT? Normally, this would show Qxxx or worse in "my suit" (clubs), good trumps (HHxx), a good fragment in "your suit (what is that here?), and a stiff in the fourth suit. So, what is "your suit" when the call is artificial? This is especially obvious as a problem when the artificial suit happens to be clubs, "my suit" that I opened.

My idea here is for 3NT to show this pattern, with "your suit" being unknown. Responder can simply ask, and I show which "your suit" I had in mind. 4C is the asking bid.

Return to the example:

1C-P-2C-P-
2H-P-2S-P-
3NT(HHxx in spades, Qxxx or worse in clubs, HHx(x) in one of the suits, stiff in the fourth suit)

Responder then can bid 4C to ask for the good side fragment:

4D = good diamond fragment, stiff heart
4H = good heart fragment, stiff diamond

Yummy Toes follows.

If the opening were 1D, same principles. 2C was artificial, so there seems to be no reason to force 3NT to only show a good club fragment. 4C still asks, but:

4D = good club fragment, stiff heart
4H = good heart fragment, stiff club

If the agreed major is hearts, same principles. However, the 4H call now shows the spade fragment. Thus, after a 1D-P-2C start, hearts agreed, 3NT-P-4C, Opener bids:

4D = good club fragment, stiff spade
4H = good spade fragment, stiff club

If the opening were clubs, hearts agreed:

4D = good diamond fragment, stiff spade
4H = good spade fragment, stiff diamond

There may be similar parallels in other auctions, for natural systems or for other systems.

No comments: