With both sides vulnerable, your partner, North, opens 1♣ first-in-hand. East overcalls 1♥. You hold as south ♠ K-7 ♥ Q-8-4-3 ♦ A-J-7-5 ♣K-8-2. What do you do?
You cannot make a negative double as you don’t have four cards in spades. A simple cue-bid of 2♥ by you would be a limit raise or better, suggesting five or more clubs with 10+ points.
Fortunately for you, you have a stopper in hearts and an opening hand yourself. 3NT suggests itself, you say.
How the play went:
In real life, west led the ♥6. East inserted the nine to drive out the queen from declarer’s hand. When declarer played a club to dummy’s queen, East won and cashed out the hearts to defeat the contract.
The full hand was:
Did it occur to you that if north declares 3NT, the defence will be powerless?
How on earth are we going to make North declare the contract?
The idea suggested by Marty Bergen was to bid 3♥, a jump cue-bid! It says: ‘Partner, please bid 3NT. It may be advantageous if played from your side. I have a stopper in the overcalled suit and an opening hand. So, the bidding should go:
W N E S
- 1♣ 1♥ 3♥!
Pass 3NT End
What has happened is that the number of stoppers has increased to two from one, because you right-sided the contract. If east does not lead hearts, you gain tempo.
Opener bids 3NT, irrespective of what he has. An absolutely wonderful idea, don’t you think?
Two more illustrations:
- Let us say partner opens 1♣ and RHO overcalls 1♠ with the K-J-T-9-5 and you are sitting over him with A-x-x and an opening hand. Your correct bid is 3♠. Suppose partner has Q-x and bids 3NT, the contract plays better from his side.
- Again partner opens 1C and your RHO overcalls 1♠ with K-Q-T-x-x. As before, with A-x-x and an opening hand, you should bid 3S which forces 3NT from partner. Suppose partner has J-x-x. On the lead of the ♠K, you partner can employ the ‘Bath coup’ to good advantage.
This jump cue-bid as a transfer to 3NT is available only for overcalls made by the opponents at the one level, which is usually in a major.
So, don’t rush to bid 3NT. See whether you can make partner declare the contract!
Do let us know your views on the hand in the comments section below
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
wouldn’t it be more useful to play jump cue as splinter agreeing with openers suit?
We play that a 1S bid by responder is either transfer to NT or clubs. In this case opener is forced to bid NT and now responder simply bids 3. If there is a doubt, responder cue bids hearts to confirm
It is an old convention ( if not ancient) , also has a name – The Western Q bid . A prudent way to reach game is envisaged like —- after two passes RHO opens 1H – & you hold – Kxx X Axx AKQxxxx . Bid 3H , asking partner to bid 3N if he has a H control , else bid 4C.( pass or correct by you to other minor ) . My friend Aniruddha has searched a detailed article from Bridgebum ‘ enlightening the subject further.