Transfer Jump Shift

[kugw]

Does anyone have any information about using transfer jump shifts in response to opening one bids?

[phoenix214]

I have played transfer jump shifts over 1 club opening, the basic idea is just that you can combine the weak jump shift which is an one bid hand, with some stronger two bid hands.

The bigger advantage is that it feels like the auction is more simple(to show some specific hand you take 2 bids, instead 3-4), which might be a gain in some partnerships.

In expert partnerships where memory is not an issue, you just gain way more space, so you can differentiate some features in hand. For example.

 

1C-1H, 1N-3H is Slam try with 1 loser in H

1C-2D, 2H-3H is Slam try with 0 loser in H

[kugw]

I have played transfer jump shifts over 1 club opening, the basic idea is just that you can combine the weak jump shift which is an one bid hand, with some stronger two bid hands.

The bigger advantage is that it feels like the auction is more simple(to show some specific hand you take 2 bids, instead 3-4), which might be a gain in some partnerships.

In expert partnerships where memory is not an issue, you just gain way more space, so you can differentiate some features in hand. For example.

 

1C-1H, 1N-3H is Slam try with 1 loser in H

1C-2D, 2H-3H is Slam try with 0 loser in H

 

 

Thanks for your input.

 

I was thinking about starting the transfers thusly:

......2 higher ranking

......2NT

......3 of a lower ranking suit

 

Have not yet worked out the exact meaning of each sequence. Should I be able to transfer into NT? What should transfer and rebid new suit mean?

[Zelandakh]

I wrote a system for this about 25 years ago, combining invitational fit jumps with stong jump shifts. Quite aside from no one else playing this way, I also came to the conclusion that there were better options with a little more experience.

 

The easiest way of making it work is to have the first step act as a relay to unwind the different hand types and other rebids cover hands that cannot be handled that way. I would not recommend using a transfer to NT, since weaker balanced hands are not a problem and strong balanced hands would prefer to declare. One option that can help here is to have the cheapest JS followed by a 2NT rebid show the big balanced hand, although that obviously does not work over a 1♠ opening.

 

What bidding a new suit on the second round means obviously depends on which hand types you include. If SJSs are there then having the new suit be natural in a SJS hand makes sense. If SJSs are not a part of the scheme then obviously the rebids are correspondingly different.

 

Finally, consider alternative schemes and what you gain or lose from each of them. Having your SJSs condensed into a single call frees up a lot of responses. Playing 2/1 as a GF usually makes SJSs fairly redundant. Having all of the single jump shifts dedicated to transfers restricts your options for raises (a serious issue over 1M) and means that you cannot use specialist methods such as Reverse Flannery (useful over 1m). Even if just using WJSs, these are much more effective if bid directly rather than via a transfer.

 

So yes, it can be done and you can come up with some pretty clever stuff here but make sure what you end up with is actually an improvement before you add it to your system.

[blackshoe]

Brian Senior wrote of this in The Transfer Principle, which seems to be out of print, though I found a copy on Amazon a couple of months ago.