Forcing Pass

[awm]

This post is intended to discuss the idea of a forcing pass hopefully at a beginner/intermediate level. Please feel free to add to it if I missed something or people disagree with me.

 

Sometimes in auctions where our side has the great majority of the values, opponents decide that they are going to bid. In these cases it is almost never right to let the opponents declare the hand in some undoubled contract. Usually the opponents can't make what they bid -- we have all the points and they are just trying to sacrifice. Our goal should be to figure out if we should penalize the opponents or bid one more and try to make a higher contract ourselves. Frequently this decision is difficult and requires some guessing; the forcing pass is a tool to help us in this situation.

 

The idea is that sometimes we would like to enlist partner's help in deciding whether to double or bid on. If our only options are to double or bid on ourselves, then partner is pretty much taken out of the equation. However, if it's obvious to both of us that letting the opponents play undoubled is a terrible idea, then we have an additional option to pass in direct chair, letting partner make the final decision. So in these auctions we can:

 

(1) Double. This strongly suggests defending. It means that we have good defensive values (aces and kings, maybe a trump trick in their suit), a relatively balanced hand, and very much prefer to defend doubled rather than bidding more ourselves.

 

(2) Bid on. This removes the possibility of defending. It normally shows extra shape (extra trump length, maybe a void in the opposing suit) and also implies that our previous strong bidding might be partially based on extra distribution rather than points.

 

(3) Pass, let partner decide. This suggests an "in between" hand, where we have a bit of extra shape but not enough to unilaterally bid on.

 

(4) Pass, but if partner doubles then overrule and bid one more anyway. This is kind of a weird thing to do (if we didn't want to defend, why give partner the option to double?). This is used as a slam try; simply bidding on just shows an offensive-oriented hand whereas passing and then bidding on over partner's double shows serious interest in slam.

 

To give an example auction:

 

1♥ - Pass - 2NT (game force heart raise) - 5♦

 

If opener doubles, it suggests a pretty balanced hand. A diamond trick is possible (but not required). If opener bids 5♥ it suggests a lot of distribution, probably a sixth heart and at most one diamond, but it's not really a "slam try" opposite a minimum 2NT bid. If opener passes it suggests a bit of extra shape (maybe six good hearts and two small diamonds, or only five hearts and a diamond singleton) such that it might be right to bid 5♥ but it also might be right to double and defend. If opener passes and then removes a double to 5♥ it's a serious try for 6♥.

 

Note that the meanings of these bids depend somewhat on the auction so far. In all cases you have to think about what you've shown already! For example:

 

1♥ - Pass - 2♣ (2/1 GF) - 2♠

4♥ - 4♠ - Pass - Pass

 

By rebidding 4♥ when partner didn't show any support, we already indicated a shapely hand with lots of hearts. So when partner passes the 4♠ (forcing pass) he knows we have a boatload of hearts. Bidding 5♥ here should imply extreme spade shortness (like a void) or some sort of club fit (maybe 8113 hand for example). Just because "we have seven hearts" isn't enough to bid on -- we already showed seven hearts.

 

So the big question is when is pass forcing and when is it not? A good partnership needs to have rules about this and different partnerships have different rules. I'll give some example situations hopefully in order from "most obvious" to "most ambiguous":

 

(1) We have shown a game force based on values. Examples are a jacoby 2NT game forcing raise, or a 2/1 GF bid.

 

(2) We have made an artificial double showing "desire to penalize." Typical example is when partner opens, RHO bids an unusual 2NT and we double.

 

(3) Opponents doubled partner's opening and we redoubled.

 

(4) We've shown invitational or better values. Examples are a standard american 2/1 bid, or a limit raise, or if we made a 2/1 bid in competition (like 1♥-1♠-2♦-3♠).

 

(5) We doubled the opponents 1NT for penalty and they ran.

 

It is also possible to play that in some situations pass is only forcing "up to a specific level" and that if opponents bid higher than that the force is off.

[maggieb]

I have three comments:

 

1) As Adam notes, low level forcing passes are common when we double their 1NT for penalty or redouble. Please discuss with your partner up to what level they apply to! I play a FP through 2♦ in either of these cases; that is, we cannot sell out to 2♣/2♦ undoubled.

 

2) Expert consensus these days seems to be to not play forcing passes after we have opened and shown invitational or better values. An example would be something like 1♦ (P) 2♦ (4♠), where 2♦ is an inverted raise, most experts would play pass is NF by either side. It's unclear to me whether or not this is actually a good agreement, but it's what seems to be standard these days.

 

3) When you adopt forcing passes, don't overuse them. Just because you can construct some kind of hand for your partner where bidding on is right doesn't mean you should make a forcing pass in case partner has this kind of hand, even though your hand is defensively oriented. In general, I have found B/I players to make too many forcing passes, mostly because they pass when they should double.