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Game Breeding Strength

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responder’s game forcing strength, and doesn’t like NT given the hearts, so higher level NT responses also seem wrong. When we have game forcing strength, a choice of suits, but only one initiates 2/1 How about the hands where partner opens one of a red suit and we have game forcing strength, a higher ranking 4+-major and a lower ranking 4+-card minor? Do we make a 2/1 GF response in the minor or bid our major at the 1-level and continue with Standard American thereafter? Suppose our two suits are the black ones: spades and clubs. Should we respond to partner’s 1♦ or 1♥ opening bid with a game forcing 2♣ or respond 1♠ knowing that we might have difficulty showing our game forcing strength later? That will depend on the length of the two …show more content…

As discussed in the section above, when we have game forcing strength, a 2-over-1 response is not always the best way to proceed. If partner had opened 1♥ on hand [1], we probably should answer 1♠, which is only forcing for one round. Recall Larry Cohen’s preference for or 2♦ over a 1♠ call, the minority opinion. Had partner opened 1♠ with hand [1], a Jacoby 2NT response, which is also game forcing, would be preferable to a 2/1 bid - assuming that you play that convention (discussed briefly in Appendix I). If not, the correct response has to be 2♦ to establish the game force before making a spade raise. With hands [3] and [9], there is no choice. We need to respond in our long minor at the 2-level to force game. Note that a 1♠ response with a 4+-card spade suit after 1♥ is NOT correct when our minor suit is longer. We respond in the 5+-card minor first if it is longer than the major, then perhaps bid the major suit. With hand [3], we would make a 2-over-1 2♦ call after 1♥, but splinter to 4♣ after 1♠ to show our club shortness, 4-card support of spades, and game forcing strength if we use simple splinter bids (also discussed briefly in Appendix

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