Transfers

[DWM]

I have seen transfers suggested for a number of situations, mostly in the first round or two of bidding.

 

I can see the advantages about playing transfers to let the strong hand play it, however I am not too clear on the advantages about playing them in other situations.

 

Is there any good guidance on these transfers and how to make the most of them. I am trying to work out if they are worth the memory cost, thinking they could be as they will come up often.

 

As transfers give oposition two chances to bid is this much of a negative when you come up against people who know how to bid against such transfers.

[kenrexford]

One major reason for "transfers" is that the call ends up acting as a semi-puppet.

 

Simply put, consider a strange possible transfer situation. Partner opens 2♠ weak. If you play RONF, 3♣ or 3♦ or 3♥ all force. There is no solutiuon for a weak hand with seven in a different suit. If you play that 2NT is the only force, then 3♣ or 3♦ or 3♥ is weak, depriving you of a natural way to start distributional holdings hands. If 3♣ and 3♦ are transfers, however, you have a way to show the weak seven-bagger in two suits (diamonds or hearts) and a solution for the strong distributional hands (transfer and then bid again).

 

A related concept is a "submarine" bid. This is not strictly a "transfer" but is rather bidding one below a suit. For example, after opening 1♦ and hearing 2♣ as a response, bidding 2♥ or 2♠ to show the indicated major might be standard. However, if you bid 2♦ instead of 2♥ with a heart suit, or 2♥ instead of 2♠ with a spade suit, neither intended as a "transfer" meaning that partner is neither forced nor even encouraged to "complet" anything -- he just bids normally -- then partner can also bid Opener's shown major at the two-level naturally. (1♦-P-2♣-P-2♦(hearts)-P-2♥(hearts also).) That way, hearts (in the example) or spades can be bid and raised at the two-level, which saves space.

 

There are tons of examples of transfers, submarines, or things in the middle (kind of transferish). As a "tweener," consider a "transfer to 3♣" where partner can "pre-acccept" by bidding 2NT if he prefers diamonds to clubs, allowing 2♠ to be a "transfer to 3♣" but also handling weak hands with 5-5 minors (3♦ after 2NT is to play).

 

Explaining all of them would be quite a task...

[jjbrr]

If you're a chess player, you can think of transfers in these auctions as gaining a tempo. Often times you want to show a suit and then either bid again or not bid again, but bidding that suit would be not forcing or forcing respectively. Take an auction like 1♣ (3♠) ? and you have a really strong hand with hearts. You want to bid 4♥ naturally, but you don't want partner to pass. When there is uncertainty of the strain involved, you can see that the ability to show ♥, then bid another suit to get more information from partner can be very valuable.

 

One could argue that in a theoretical world, you would agree to play lots and lots of situations as transfers because you get a little extra room to maneuver. In practice, you can survive fine without them.

[Mbodell]

Another place where they are totally free is transfer advances. Some people play transfer advances that are more extensive and then not-free, but the simple form I'm thinking of defines everything between the cue bid (including the cue bid) and the raise (not including the raise) as a transfer. In this way you lose no bid but can show both weaker and stronger hands. To show what I mean consider the following auction:

 

P-(1♣)-1♠-(P)-???

 

In standard you'd have:

 

2♣ - strong spade raise

2♦ - natural NFConst

2♥ - natural NFConst

2♠ - simple raise

 

Change that to transfer advances and you get:

 

2♣ - ♦ hand, if partner would pass the weak end of a NFConst they complete the transfer

2♦ - ♥ hand, if partner would pass the weak end of a NFConst they complete the transfer

2♥ - strong spade raise

2♠ - simple raise

 

All you've done is rearrange the bids 2♣-2♥ but you've given the freedom to have weaker or stronger hands bid it and you can show a suit with support in the auction if it goes, for instance, (1♣)-1♠-2♦*-2♥-2♠ where you transferred to hearts and then bid spades. You've thus shown a reasonable hand with hearts and spades and partner can evaluate how well to fit before deciding if invite or stay at 2♠.

[Jlall]

If you're a chess player, you can think of transfers in these auctions as gaining a tempo.

wow this is really good

[DWM]

(1♣)-1♠-2♦*-2♥-2♠

 

In the example above 1♣ bidder can bid 3♣ in the second or third round of bidding, without knowing a treatment i assume it can either show and AK or QJ hand or show/deny values in hearts.

 

I can see that in an uncontested auction the bidding may be kept a level lower, but still would like to see a more in depth explanation of continuations. I am also trying to see how transfers work in competative auctioins against opositions who know how to defend against them.