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Conventions used after 1 major opening

An adaptation to play 1NT response forcing over 1-Major opening. Opener is forced to rebid. F1NT is forcing for one round and it is a must to play a two over one system and Jacoby 2NT raise.  Partnership will be able to differentiate the 3 and 4c supports. Opener will rebid naturally as if not playing F1NT. He has to bid with 5332 and minimum hands with which he was passing to a natural 1NT response before. Responder will bid naturally with 6-10 point hands.

• Semi Forcing 1NT Response

• 1ª=F1NT and 1NT=5+c ª

• Forcing 1NT byEth (Artificial)

2NT response to a 1-Major opening shows support to Opener's Major and game forcing values. Originally responder should have a balanced hand but you may prefer to play also with unbalanced hands. J2NT is a slam bidding convention. Opener will make a descriptive rebid over J2NT raise. Forcing or semi-forcing 1NT response is a pre-requisite for J2NT. Natural 2NT response goes into Forcing 1NT response to play this convention.

• J2NT byEth (Artificial)

3§ and 3¨ responses to 1-Major openings show 4c supports. 3§ is for 6-9 and 3¨ is for 10-11. Advantage of Bergen Raises are: You may differentiate 4c supports and you will save 3M raise for preemptive raises. Opener will continue bidding naturally over Bergen Raises. He may have a random trial bid over 3§ or 3¨ up to 3 of his original major.

• Bergen raises byEth (modified w/3OM and F1NT)

After support of a major at the 2 level the next player's bid below game level is for game invitation. A new suit below 3 of the supported major, 2NT and 3 of the original major may be played for this reason. Some players play 3M as preemptive (Generally after © support to preempt over ª suit). A new suit ask for help in the bid suit, 2NT a general invitation and 3M asks for the suit quality.

• Long Help Suit Trial Bids

• Short Suit Trial Bids

• Romex Trial Bids (Long-Short)

• Random Trial Bids

With 3 of the OM over 1-Major openings (1©-3ª or 1ª-3©) responder shows; 4c support, any singleton and 10-12 points. A good convention when played with Bergen Raises. If you decide to play 3OM then 3¨ Bergen Raise shows balanced. If there is a slam interest, opener with the first step may ask for the suit of shortness. For a good major suit raise structure, add F1NT, J2NT, Bergen Raises, 3OM and splinters to your bidding system. With 3c support and 5+c good side suits you will begin the bidding with 2/1 response.

4§ and 4¨ responses over 1-Major openings show; 4c support, shortness in the bid suit and 13-15 points. Partnership should have an agreement on 1ª-4© if it is natural to play or splinter. Shortness showing bids are very important for a well designed bidding system. All systems includes splinter bids. Splinter bids are adapted in all auctions after major suit bids. So any jump bid to 4§ or 4¨ over a major suit bid or support is a splinter bid. (1§-1© // 4¨ or 1¨-1© //1ª-4¨ or 1¨-1© // 2©-4§, etc.)

A convention used by a passed hand to check if opener has full opening values. 2§ response by a passed hand over 1-Major openings is Drury (2§ over 1©/ª). Players open with less than opening values as their partnership agreements, at the 3rd position after two passes, to make life difficult for the opponents and to show the lead suit to their partners. 2§ bid by passed responder shows; support to major and natural 3M raise with 10-11 points. Drury is also ON, after a 1 major opening at 4th position. When you have ª suit with a hand less than opening values, you may want to open the bidding to play a partscore contract instead of a passed out at the 4th position. Drury keeps partnership at lower levels after weak openings at 3rd and 4th positions.

• Reverse Drury

• Bergen Drury (2§--3cF and 2¨--4cF)

4§ and 4¨ responses over 1-Major openings show; support with a balanced hand, 4432 or 4333. 4§ is for 15-16 and 4¨ is for 12-14 points. This is an old convention used before Jacoby 2NT. If you use J2N you don't need Swiss Raises. Your J2NT includes 12+ any balanced with 4c support. Original Swiss raise:4§ shows 13-15, support, balanced and 2 key cards, 4¨ shows 13-15, support and 3 key cards. If you decide to play Swiss Raises then you should make some structural design in your system. Because you should play direct 3NT response for any singleton 13-15 and 13-15 without a fit you need to use forcing 1NT response. Another method is to use Jacoby 2NT with balanced and unbalanced hands.

After 1© opening and responder responds 1ª 1NT rebid of opener shows 12-16 (if not opening 1NT with 5cM). Then 2§ rebid by responder asks for the clarification of opener's hand. Opener's responses will be : 2¨=2-5-3-3 12-14 , 12-14 ; 2©=3-5-(32) 15-16 ; 2ª=3-5-(32) 12-14 ; 2NT= 2-5-3-3 15-16. In fact I have added 2¨ and 2© responses. In original Crowhurst there is no 2¨ response. You may find my modified version.

• Crowhurst byEth

This is a bid made by opener with a very strong 7c major suit and a very strong hand. Over responder's response opener decided to bid 4M. Before bidding 4M he is describing his hand for slam purposes. He shows: 19-21 points with information about his original suit and the fragment suit. His suit is headed by A and fragment suit is 3c and with 2 of the three top honors.

• Mathe Asking Bid