Whenever you enter into the bidding you are primarily looking for your side to play in a major and if at all possible you would like to play in game (or above!). When your side opens 1NT the bidding is quite different than when they open a suit and that is because you have a lot of information about the 1NT bidder’s shape and point constraints. Given that we prefer a major contract to NTs we strive to bid major suits after a 1NT opening to try and look for a fit there, and often we supress minor suits in order to facilitate our bias to majors. Natural bidding states that responding a suit after a 1NT opening shows 5+ cards and either a weak hand (at the 2 level) or a game going hand (at the 3 level and above). This presents a problem when there is a 4-4 fit present but this is dealt with by playing Stayman. which sacrifices a natural bid of 2♣ for a ‘major-finding’ convention. Another problem that is not as obvious as the 4-4 fit, is when responder is not entirely sure of if they should bid game or not.
Imagine your partner has opened 1NT, your right hand opponent has passed and you are dealt this:
♠ KQ10xx
♥ Ax
♦ Qxx
♣ xxx
We have a 5 card spade suit so would like to bid spades to show that to our partner, but we are not sure if we should bid 2♠ (a weakness takeout showing 10 or fewer points) which our partner would pass, or 3♠ which would force our partner to bid game in either 3NT or 4♠. The problem we have here is that we are using our responsive bid to represent both our suit length and our strength, and we simply lack the variety of bids to show a weak hand, an invitational hand (as above) and a game going hand. We would like to be able to bid 2 and a half spades on the above hand!
This problem is solved by ‘Jacoby Transfers’ named as such after Oswald Jacoby, an excellent bridge player a bit before my time! The brilliant solution is to get your partner to bid your suit for you. This way you can first show your suit and then with your second bid you then show strength, thus splitting the two important elements of your hand into two separate bids.
The theory of that is all well and good but how do you get your partner to bid your suit for you? How will they know what suit you actually have if you are not bidding it yourself? Well this is why the bids are called ‘transfers’ because you imply your suit by instead bidding the suit directly below the suit you actually hold – transferring the responsibility of bidding your suit to your partner. This is conventional in nature and therefore you are promising nothing other than the artificial agreement you have in place with your partner.
The agreement in full would read:
After our team opens 1NT and the next opponent passes, a response of 2♦* promises 5+ hearts and similarly 2♥* promises 5+ spades.
That is all you are promising by making a transfer bid, simply 5 or more cards in the higher ranking suit. Notice here we are sacrificing being able to bid diamonds naturally in order to be able to more easily bid the major suits. Transfers twinned with Stayman means that we cannot bid minors at the 2 level naturally in reponse to 1NT – this is a worthwhile sacrifice to make though!
You will notice that the title of this article is ‘Red Suit Transfers’ rather than ‘Jacoby Transfers’. This is because unfortunately for poor Oswald, the ‘Jacoby’ was dropped in preference for the more simplistic name. They are named as such because when you bid a red suit after a 1NT opener it is indeed a transfer bid, so this name helps you remember when your partner is making a transfer bid. There is also a system known as full transfers, which is quite complex, there’s a video here if you fancy challenging yourself!
Once you have made a transfer bid, your partner must complete that transfer (there are very exceptional cases where the 1NT opener might break the transfer but this is rare – do not worry about this for now).
That means that with the hand of:
♠ KQ10xx
♥ Ax
♦ Qxx
♣ xxx
as above, the bidding would start:
1NT – 2♥*
2♠ – ?
What you have done by using a transfer bid is that you have created a situation where you have got your partner to do your bidding for you (literally!) so you can relax that they now know of your 5 card spade suit. This means that your second bid can be more focused on the quality of your hand (ie points).
Imagining the sequence above, the following rebids from responder would represent your varying strengths and in some cases specify your major length:
Pass – 10 or fewer points, no game interest, 5+ spades
2NT – 11/12 points, invitational, exactly 5 spades
3♠ – 11/12 points, invitational, 6+ spades
3NT – 13+ points, game going, exactly 5 spades
4♠ – 13+ points, game going, 6+ spades
4NT – 16+ points, slam interest, 6+ spades (very rare!)
The key here is to not get excited when your partner bids your 5 card suit! You mustn’t forget that you have in fact told them to bid your suit for you, so they may or may not like your suit at all. Of course they will have at least 2 cards in your suit as they have promised a balanced hand by opening 1NT. On the above hand you would rebid 2NT to show your invitational nature and that you have 5 cards only in your major. This allows the 1NT to make a decision of where to play which will depend on their strength as well as their liking/disliking for your suit.
Playing this method gives you incredible precision in showing your major suit orientated hands when your side opens 1NT and they are so good that almost every bidding system ever invented plays red suit transfers, you can almost take them as a given!
There is another hidden advantage to transfers and that is that when you are weak (and therefore want to play at the 2 level only) transfer bids actually get the declarer to be the player who bid 1NT. This is often a benefit for your side as the opening lead will be going round to the player who holds more points out of the two of you so it is more likely aid your declarer.
For example, imagine you held this hand:
♠ xxx
♥ Jxxxxx
♦ Kx
♣ xx
Firstly, not really a hand you ever want to get, but after your partner opens 1NT (poor partner) you need to get your side into a heart contract rather than a presumably doomed 1NT. Playing transfers, assuming no intervention from the opponents, you would bid 2♦* and pass your partner’s completion of 2♥ proudly putting down your hand as dummy. This feels like a psychological advantage of ‘thank god I’m not playing this hand!’ but actually it is strictly better for your partner to play this hand as they have more points so are more likely to benefit from a lead coming to them at trick 1.
You might be thinking of what you lose by playing transfers such as a natural 2♦ bid and also what happens to your 2♠ response to 1NT if you now bid 2♥* to show spades? Well the answers to both of those questions are linked, but not quickly answered! See an in-depth video here to find out more.
