Te Awamutu Contract Bridge Club

 Transfer Bids - What are they?

They are a response system to a 1NT opener that work as follows. After the 1NT opener, responder bids 2D asking opener to respond 2H, or 2H asking partner to respond 2S

What is the point of this? Why not just bid it yourself? Two main reasons really.

1. To keep the stronger hand hidden.

We all know about the weakness takeout (WTO)- your partner opens 1NT and you have 10 pts or less but with 5+ in a major. 2H or 2S is therefore commanding partner to pass. The weaker responder is, the more important it is to bid that WTO - even with a yarborough!!. It also follows that the weaker the responder, the better it is to have that hand as dummy and the stronger hand hidden. If you bid a WTO then the 1NT opener becomes dummy. By playing transfers, the stronger hand is hidden.

Before going to the second reason, lets just remind ourselves of the difference between the WTO and the game force response.

We hopefully know that a 3H or 3S response to a 1NT opener promises an opening hand, exactly 5 cards in the suit and is demanding partner to bid game in either 3NT or 4 of your major. THE 1NT OPENER CANNOT PASS THIS GAME FORCE BID!! If opener has three or more cards in the specified major, bid game in that suit, but if you have a doubleton (as any 1NT opener might have), then bid 3NT. Remember also that if responder has a six card major, there is no need to ask opener to choose. Responding 3H or 3S to a 1NT opener with a six card suit is silly really.The 1NT bid promises at least 2 in every suit, so you know you have a fit in the suit. Bid game youself. With this distribution responder has the master hand now.

All this brings us to the second reason for transfers

From the above we know that the above responses in a major to a 1NT opener are demanding one of two things - a pass or a game bid. By what about the marginal 11 point hand with a 5 card suit. Consider the following hands

S A42 H KQ653 D 86 C Q65

S A42 H KQ6532 D 86 C J6

Neither is really strong enough to bid game with confidence, but they are too strong really to force a pass. It all depends on whether the 1NT opener has 12 or 14 points, and/or whether there is support for your major. Transfers allow you to do what WTO/game force responses cannot - to INVITE to game. Lets look at those two hands again to see how this applies

With the first, the response should be 2D, then when the compulsory 2H is bid, reply 2NT. This tells opener that you must have a 5 card heart suit, or you would not have bid the transfer, and also 11 or 12 points to bid the 2NT's. In other words you have shown opener your normal 2NT response, but also a 5 card major on the way. Opener then has a better picture of the shape of you hand, and if minimum, can pass 2NT or take it back to 3H.

In the second case the response is still 2D, demanding a 2H response, but now bid 3H from which opener knows you must have a six card suit, (or your bid would have been 2NT as above), and therefore a fit, and can decide whether to take it to game.

These same transfers can also be used over a 2NT (21-22 pts) opener. It can sometimes be very difficult when your partner opens 2NT to differeniate between the following hands

S Q10864 H J65 D 873 C Q3

and S 109754 H 832 D 83 C 976

In the first you want to be in game, but sure whether in NT or Spades depending on what partner has. In the second you definitely want to be in nothing other that 3S. If not playing transfers you cannot adequately describe your hand. If you are, then after a 3H transfer bid by you and 3S by the 2NT opener, a pass by you ensures you play the weak hand in the right contract, and 3NT tells opener you have the points for game, plus five spades.

Other Points
1. If playing the above, 2S is no longer used as a spade suit bid, which releases it for other uses. In our club, after our partner opens 1NT, we bid 2S to show exactly 11 pts, and 2NT to show exactly 12. This gives opener an exact point count as opposed to the 11/12 points that 2NT would show if not playing transfers.
2. What if you have two five card majors opposite a 1NT opener? You bid 2D asking your partner to bid 2H, and then bid 2S. That way the opener will know that you must have 5 hearts, or why would you have bid 2D, and the 2S then shows 5 spades as well. Opener can take it from there.